How to connect Matlab with PIC?

Hello all my friend,

i am now in progress of my Project about the robotic hand.The idea is like that,the Matlab is use for detect the movement and position of human hand.After that it will send the data to PIC for adjust the position of robotic hand as same as human and. So,I wish to know how to communicate between Matlab and PIC16f877a? Please give me some idea.

Best Regards QY Goh

[TAB]

Which mode of communication you want use?

You can connect your hardware through PC's LPT port or Serial port.

I will prefer serial communication.

[Walter Roberson]

Connecting through the parallel port is getting more and more difficult with newer MS Windows releases, and is effectively unsupported in newer MATLAB releases. It is recommended not to build any new projects which rely on the parallel port.

[QY Goh]

If i using USB serial Port? the connection available or not?

[Walter Roberson]

You can use USB serial ports, provided that you connect the device before you start MATLAB, and provided that you are okay with the latency being 40 milliseconds per USB packet (unless the packet is full, somewhere around 1022 bytes.)

[QY Goh]

Hello walter, i use video cam to take the input of the user's finger color.

Answer 1

[Gergely Öllös]

Hi,

There are so many possibilities. One of them –that I would prefer – is to use the PIC’s USART/SCI. Just buy a serial/usb converter cable (it’s almost for free) and hook up with the PICs USART (there is no need for any additional HW). Then plug the USB side of the cable to the PC and it will show up as a virtual serial port. Then just use MATLAB’s Serial Port Interface to connect to it, as in this example:

s = serial('COM1');

set(s,'BaudRate',4800);

fopen(s);

fprintf(s,'something to send')

out = fscanf(s);

fclose(s); delete(s);

On the PIC’s side The Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) module is a serial I/O module. It can be configured as a full duplex asynchronous system that can communicate with peripheral devices such as personal computers. Configure the USART in full duplex mode, and with the same signaling speed as in matlab (4800 in our example). To configure the USART set these two registers:

TXSTA: TRANSMIT STATUS AND CONTROL REGISTER (ADDRESS 98h)

RCSTA: RECEIVE STATUS AND CONTROL REGISTER (ADDRESS 18h)

For details consult the PIC’s user manual.

I hope this helps, Gergo

[QY Goh]

Thank You for your suggestion Gergely. But got any idea how to detect the movement in Matlab?

[Walter Roberson]

QY Goh, you did not happen to mention any information about what kind of instrument you are using to detect the movement and position of a human hand. Are you using a video camera?

[Gergely Öllös]

QY Goh, It depends on the application. What is the model of the hand?