Arduino Blog reports on Mikael Moerup’s Gobetwino software – a basic proxy between Windows programs and Arduino boards (though it works with other serial-capable devices as well). Using the included command templates, one can write their own sketch capable of doing the following –
- Start a program on the PC. Start a program, and wait until it finishes, and tell Arduino it finished.
- Send data to any windows program from Arduino, like it was typed on the keyboard.
- Send email, optionally with an attached file.
- Download a file from the internet.
- Read a file and return data to Arduino.
- Log data from Arduino to a file, with an optional timestamp.
- Periodically check a POP3 mailbox for incoming mails and send commands from the mail to Arduino.
- Get the time from the PC.
- Get the date from the PC.
- Ping a host or IP address.
- Copy a file on the PC.
With combinations of these commands you can do things like:
- Start any program on your PC, either directly or via an associated file type.
- Start Excel, send data from Arduino directly into the Excel sheet, save the sheet and email it, without touching your PC.
- Send e-mails to a POP3 mailbox and have Arduino react to the contents of the emails.
- Log data directly to a CSV file on the PC, so the data can be used in spreadsheets or databases.
- Download a file from the internet and have Arduino ask for a specific line of data from the file.
The software is free and includes a manual and example sketches, source to come. Head over to the site to give it a go.
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