You can use a serial connect, USB HID via the hi object (either your own system, one that someone has built, or things like hacked game controllers). I'm sure there are other ways, but these 2 are quite common.

wes

On 8/23/06, Dave L wrote: > > I am trying decide whether to get data (generated by a proprietary sensor system) into max via midi or via some other way (e.g. creating a file outside of max, and reading a file when in max). > > as I am a novice at max, I am not aware of the best ways of getting max's hands on this data. so any advice very welcome. > > It will need to run on a pc (running Windows XP Professional), and with the software extracting and preparing the data also on the same pc. The proprietary sensors software seems to need a program written in C to get access to teh dat, but we are experimenting on a simpler way (as the project doesnt have any 'C' skills .... ) > > I would like midi coming into max, as easy to handle ... but 2 problems: > > 1. getting midi from other software into max on same PC (e.g. midi yoke does it, but apparently a bit 'flakey' on NT/XP...!) > 2. knowing how to generate a midi message from C or similar ... > > an alternative is by writing to a file in some front end software ... and then reading that file in max > > or > > maybe another (better) way that I dont know about ..??? > > > any helpful comments/advice out there ...?? > > p.s. I normally work with max on a mac... so yet another layer of mystique in sorting this out ..!! >

Whoops, didn't read the second half of your email. I was thinking you were going from a microcontroller to the PC. For software to software communication, sockets is the best option. I have no idea about your software, but if there's someway you can use it to send data of UDP or TCP/IP, that's the best thing. Otherwise, if you can get it to write to a file, max can be made to automatically open it and parse it quite easily with and mxj or js object.

wes

On 8/23/06, Wesley Smith wrote: > You can use a serial connect, USB HID via the hi object (either your > own system, one that someone has built, or things like hacked game > controllers). I'm sure there are other ways, but these 2 are quite > common. > > wes > > On 8/23/06, Dave L wrote: > > > > I am trying decide whether to get data (generated by a proprietary sensor system) into max via midi or via some other way (e.g. creating a file outside of max, and reading a file when in max). > > > > as I am a novice at max, I am not aware of the best ways of getting max's hands on this data. so any advice very welcome. > > > > It will need to run on a pc (running Windows XP Professional), and with the software extracting and preparing the data also on the same pc. The proprietary sensors software seems to need a program written in C to get access to teh dat, but we are experimenting on a simpler way (as the project doesnt have any 'C' skills .... ) > > > > I would like midi coming into max, as easy to handle ... but 2 problems: > > > > 1. getting midi from other software into max on same PC (e.g. midi yoke does it, but apparently a bit 'flakey' on NT/XP...!) > > 2. knowing how to generate a midi message from C or similar ... > > > > an alternative is by writing to a file in some front end software ... and then reading that file in max > > > > or > > > > maybe another (better) way that I dont know about ..??? > > > > > > any helpful comments/advice out there ...?? > > > > p.s. I normally work with max on a mac... so yet another layer of mystique in sorting this out ..!! > > >