How to go on without hyperterminal : (

[TopherTheME]

So I'm running W7 and as I'm sure many of you know, MS ditched hyperterminal after Vista. This leaves a bit of a void in my life as it can be difficult to communicate with micro's from my PC. Normally I would just use Matlab for communication as Mathworks makes it rather painless but it can be a pain in the ass to work with sometimes. And every time something goes wrong or I want to re-establish communication, I have to restart Matlab. In Excel 2003, I have used the MSComm1 command and the VB.NET API to communicate through serial ports. Well, now I have Excel 2007 and 2010 and I can't find a dam thing about how to communicate to COM ports with them. Does anyone have a clue? I've seen some stuff out there using Active X for communication but it involves dealing with the registry and looks way to dam confusing.

[rossmoffett]

That's weird.. a client of mine said the same thing but I found it in the accessories menu on his Windows 7 PC.

Maybe you should stop using your PC to communicate by serial.  You can purchase a handheld terminal emulator that's instant on and has a decent keyboard for the size.. I don't have one but I saw one in the field last week and I want it.

[TopherTheME]

I could, but I still would like to communicate using Excel though. A lot of my school projects involve data logging which you can't really do with a hand held unit.

[TopherTheME]

I could, but I still would like to communicate using Excel though. A lot of my school projects involve data logging which you can't really do with a hand held unit.

How did your colleague get hyperterminal?

[Jon Chandler]

I use MTTTY, downloaded from here.  It's pretty flexible and works well for me.

[joelby]

Good riddance - Hyperterminal is awful!

I use PuTTY, which is free and supports SSH, Telnet, and serial.

[FreeThinker]

I could, but I still would like to communicate using Excel though. A lot of my school projects involve data logging which you can't really do with a hand held unit.

How did your colleague get hyperterminal?

Try this if you really need Hyperterminal http://digitizor.com/2009/08/29/how-to-install-the-winxp-hyperterminal-client-on-windows-vista-or-windows-7-free/

[Mechatrommer]

a reason for me to stick to winxp. i missed true DOS command line, in xp its only the emulation left

[safarir]

Good riddance - Hyperterminal is awful!

I use PuTTY, which is free and supports SSH, Telnet, and serial.

+1
I am using putty for more than 10 years now

[logictom]

Good riddance - Hyperterminal is awful!

I use PuTTY, which is free and supports SSH, Telnet, and serial.

+1
I am using putty for more than 10 years now

Another +1 for putty.
Or if you want hyperterminal check out here: http://digitizor.com/2009/08/29/how-to-install-the-winxp-hyperterminal-client-on-windows-vista-or-windows-7-free/ it tells you how to copy it from another PC and it has a ZIP with the necessary files in that you can just extract to the desktop and off you go.

[the_raptor]

You can also get legit ($$$) Hyperterminal for Vista/Win7.

Why you would want to is beyond me though.

[8086]

I use http://www.virtualserialport.com/products/serial-port-terminal/

It costs but it's very good.

A good free alternative is http://realterm.sourceforge.net/

[Hypernova]

I use http://www.virtualserialport.com/products/serial-port-terminal/

It costs but it's very good.

A good free alternative is http://realterm.sourceforge.net/

What I use by default, I use the "binary sync char" thing a lot.

[migsantiago]

Hey guys, do NOT use this guide:

http://digitizor.com/2009/08/29/how-to-install-the-winxp-hyperterminal-client-on-windows-vista-or-windows-7-free/

By copying the WinXP files to Win7 you can actually use the hyperterminal... but it has GLITCHES. I was working on a TCP socket connection and it failed a lot.

I had to move to the demo private edition of the Hyperterminal. After that I had to use PUTTY.

[NiHaoMike]

I just use minicom...

[gonnafail]

I also use Matlab for serial communications in Windows 7. It was funny to see that you also have to close and restart anytime something crashes to re-establish a connection. I assumed there was something I was doing wrong or not clearing to be able to make it work but never took the time to figure out what the problem was. Glad to see I am not alone. When I wanted to use Hyperterminal I used "Windows XP mode" for windows 7. Its a free download from Microsoft and creates a virtual Windows XP installation that you can use to run all sorts of things. I have heard good things of PUTTY but have not tried it out myself.

[Time]

i love matlab.  that program never ceases to amaze me with its endless amount of usefulness.

[sonicj]

for mac i use terminal, screen, coolterm (<==nice!)

for linux i use minicom & putty

[philbx1]

I've been using Bray's Terminal for a while now.
Not sure about use with Win 7 but it doesn't require an install, just put it wherever and it runs.

Also includes macros, (limited) scripting, server mode and even graphic output for the signal.

https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/

[nyo]

I'm a putty user as well, mostly for ssh to my linux box but also very reliable for serial com to uC

[kek]

I use windows on a laptop that has no serial port. When I want to use a serial port to talk to one of my projects I ssh (putty) into my linux box (old Pentium3), then use minicom to talk out the serial port. I'm very happy with this setup - very responsive.

[scrat]

i love matlab.  that program never ceases to amaze me with its endless amount of usefulness.

It's off topic, but I agree. I consider it as an Engineer Operating System

[scrat]

i love matlab.  that program never ceases to amaze me with its endless amount of usefulness.

It's off topic, but I agree. I consider it as an Engineer Operating System

PS: Pay attention, Matlab may cause addiction.

[Hypernova]

Funny enough I never touch matlab, somehow I just don't like it.

[scrat]

Funny enough I never touch matlab, somehow I just don't like it.

I used to have the same feeling about it, before starting (because I had to) to use it. I thought I could do the same things by programming in C, using Mathematica and so on. Now, sometimes I use it instad of the calculator

Of course, anyone chooses his preferred tools, but I think it's a pity not to know it.