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Bluetooth calipers input to excel

cncwhiz

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 11, 2007
Location
Minden, Nevada
We are looking into paperless manufacturing. All of our inspection sheets are built with excel. I would like to be able to click a box in excel, check the dimension with a blue tooth measuring tool, click a button and it inputs into excel. How do I do this???

Tia
Cncwhiz
 
Most of the bluetooth calipers seem like they essentially emulate a keyboard and send over the data like you typed it in using a bluetooth keyboard... It should work exactly as you stated it, click on the cell where you want the input in excel, click the measure button on the caliper and the value should show up as expected.

If your computer doesn't have a bluetooth receiver there are plenty of USB ones available on amazon for very cheap.

EDIT: My original phrasing of my response sounded snarky, not what I intended!
 
The above spot on.
Test it in notepad. push button and should type. Then you know the link working.
In excel be aware that it is just a keyboard typing so be on the correct cell before pushing the button on the caliper.
Wrong spot and it will overwrite any formulas or whatever unless you have protected those cells.
It is just like you typing at a keyboard in most cases,
Some have the ability to query from the excel computer side with no touching the button on the caliper but that gets harder to do in excel and you will have to know VBA how to make this call.
This done if you want a real time display on the computer like say a DRO type deal.

Who'd of thought that you could make a DRO in excel?
Then one can do 3 and 10 points circles and arcs, angles, orients, extra coordinate systems, tool offsets.... oh my.
Bob
 
I honestly didn't realize that bluetooth on calipers/micrometers had become as common/cheap as it is until I was researching to make sure I was answering this question correctly... Pretty awesome actually and I have an application for them myself, so thanks for the question OP!
 
I have a pair of Mahr 6" wireless calipers I bought for proof of concept for exactly what you have described. No "dongle" on it, integral to the head of the caliper. There's a tiny wireless receiver that plugs into a USB port on a PC or Tablet. In my case it's plugged into my 8 port USB bank off my PC at my desk.

Works fine. I've made a spreadsheet with the ability to control what column (inspection points)is active for entry at any point in time.

Start up the spreadsheet. Start up the Mahr interface S/W. Fill in the config info that identifies what spreadsheet will be receiving the data, and starting row/column, and whether progression will be verticle (column) or horizontal (row).

Look to see green connection icons confirming the devices are communicating, and start measuring and clicking.

Not terribly expensive. My recollection is $260 or so for the calipers, and $135 for the receiver. Note: The receiver will support up to 5 or 6 devices
 
The above spot on.
Test it in notepad. push button and should type. Then you know the link working.
In excel be aware that it is just a keyboard typing so be on the correct cell before pushing the button on the caliper.
Wrong spot and it will overwrite any formulas or whatever unless you have protected those cells.
It is just like you typing at a keyboard in most cases,
Some have the ability to query from the excel computer side with no touching the button on the caliper but that gets harder to do in excel and you will have to know VBA how to make this call.
This done if you want a real time display on the computer like say a DRO type deal.

Who'd of thought that you could make a DRO in excel?
Then one can do 3 and 10 points circles and arcs, angles, orients, extra coordinate systems, tool offsets.... oh my.
Bob

Any time Excel is used for something like this (forms) all the cells that are not data input should be protected. That will prevent buggering the form by clicking on the wrong cell.

If you want fancy output Excel can be used as a database and the cell data can be linked to a form in MS Word. You can preselect a range of data and then print forms with that data range. I've done it many times for labels, cal sheets, and so forth.
 








 
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