R help - Nov 2010 - data acquisition with R?

Hello,

I spent quite some time now searching for any hint that R can also be 
used to address the interfaces of a computer (i.e. RS232 or USB) to 
acquire data from measurement devices (like with the - I think it is the 
- devices or serial toolbox of Matlab).

Is there any package available or a project going on that you know of? I 
would so much like to have never to work with Matlab again. The only 
thing I am really missing in R so far is the possibility to connect to 
my measurement devices (for instance a precision balance) and record 
data directly with R.

Please let me know whether I am just missing something or if you have 
some information about something like that.

Thank you very much!
Mango
-- 
-----------------------------------------
B.-Markus Schuller aka Mango

Sensory Ecology Group
Max-Planck-Institute for Ornithology
82319 Seewiesen, Germany

phone: +49 (0)8157 932 -378
fax:   +49 (0)8157 932 -344
email: schuller at orn.mpg.de
http://www.orn.mpg.de/nwg/abtsiemers.html
-----------------------------------------
Never run for the bus.
Never skip tea.

R implements (almost) all IO through its 'connections'. Unfortunately,
there is no API (public or private) for adding connections, and
therefore no packages that implement connections. You will find more
discussion of connections and hardware (serial, USB) interface in the
R-devel list archives.

There are two source code patches that implement two types of
connections that work on POSIX compliant OSs, including GNU Linux, BSD,
and Mac OS X. The first is a 'serial' connection, a high level
connection to a serial port <http://biostatmatt.com/archives/112>. The
second is a 'tty' connection, a more low level connection to the POSIX
termios interface <http://biostatmatt.com/archives/564>. Both of these
solutions require that you apply the patch and recompile R. I can help
with this, if you like.

AFAIK, these are the only attempts at interfacing R with POSIX TTYs
directly.

-Matt



On Fri, 2010-11-05 at 09:48 -0400, B.-MarkusS wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I spent quite some time now searching for any hint that R can also be 
> used to address the interfaces of a computer (i.e. RS232 or USB) to 
> acquire data from measurement devices (like with the - I think it is the 
> - devices or serial toolbox of Matlab).
> 
> Is there any package available or a project going on that you know of? I 
> would so much like to have never to work with Matlab again. The only 
> thing I am really missing in R so far is the possibility to connect to 
> my measurement devices (for instance a precision balance) and record 
> data directly with R.
> 
> Please let me know whether I am just missing something or if you have 
> some information about something like that.
> 
> Thank you very much!
> Mango
-- 
Matthew S. Shotwell
Graduate Student 
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Medical University of South Carolina

Thanks a lot, Matt!

I will have a look at the options you suggested.

Cheers,
Mango

-- 

-----------------------------------------
Never run for the bus.
Never skip tea.