Communication Settings for a Turner Fluorometer
Note, we no longer sell Windmill as a stand-alone program. This page is to help our existing customers.
Windmill software lets you continually log data from Turner Fluorometers, and other instruments with an RS232 serial port, on a PC running Windows. All data is time-stamped and can be imported into Excel, mapping software or other applications - either during or after data collection.
Read this in conjunction with the Getting started with ComDebug and COMIML Serial Driver page.
For information on what each of the settings means, see the Serial Driver Settings Overview. For help on interfacing a GPS along with a Turner Fluorometer, see our GPS page.
"I just finished settting up our Turner SCUFA Fluorometer with Windmill. Great software. It was very easy, Thanks!"
GL, University of the Pacific
Windmill has been used with a Turner fluorometer to, amongst other applications, map sewage dispersion using dye fluorescence.
To use Windmill to collect data from a Turner fluorometer: download the software then..
- Run the Windmill ComDebug, select Create a new Windmill Instrument File, and enter your balance's serial communication settings.
- Run the Windmill DDE Panel, Logger or Chart program to save or display data from your balance.
After you have entered your configuration settings with ComDebug, you don't need to use this again and can go straight to the logging and display programs.
Turner Designs SCUFA submersible Fluorometer
Set the Analog Output rate on the fluorometer to 1 Hz. (If set to 5 Hz or internal data logger the serial output will be disabled.)
COM Port Settings
| Comm Port: | Select the port to which your instrument is connected. |
| Baud Rate: | 9600 |
| Data Bits: | 8 |
| Parity: | None |
| Stop Bits: | 1 |
| Flow Control: | None |
Data Format
| Example data string: | 08/08/01 16:15:48: 18.899 18.899 83.298 26.2(C)<cr><lf> Where <cr> is a carriage return character and <lf> a linefeed, and the data is: Date, Time, Fluorescence, TCF (Temp. Corrected Fluorescence), Turbity, Temperature |
| Data format: | ASCII |
| Example parsing: | Ignore Until :<space> Extract Until <space> where <space> is a space character (press the space bar, don't type<space>). This would capture fluorescence data. To also collect temperatures you could use: Search <space> Search <space> Search <space> Extract Until (C) |
Instrument Timing
| Read: | In the Background |
| Timeout: | 5000 ms |
| Instrument Idle or Wait Time: | 500 ms |
| Data Persistence Time: | 1000 ms |
Trouble-Shooting
- Confirm that the fluorometer is receiving power: check that the excitation light is illuminated upon power up.
- Make sure that the fluorometer has the Analog output enabled, and an output rate of 1 Hz. Otherwise data streaming will be disabled.
- For a C3 Turner fluorometer you will need to reset each time to data logging mode. Make sure you have a recent version of comDebug to do this.
- If you do not see data in ComDebug's Terminal screen:
- try connecting the fluorometer to alternative COM ports
- If using a USB-RS232 converter, its settings must also match those used by your instrument, see our USB-Serial converter page for help, especially point 7.
- Check your cable, if possible try swapping the cable for another.
- If still nothing see our Trouble-Shooting Serial Port Connections page.
Further Information:
Windmill Serial Port Driver Settings
Getting Started with ComDebug and COMIML
COM Port Settings
SCUFA Manual
SCUFA Serial data output example
