-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 105 www.windmill.co.uk April 2007 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Thank you for subscribing to Monitor. I hope you enjoy the newsletter but should you wish to cancel your subscription, you can do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill Tips: DAQ Programming Tools Checklist * Excel Corner: See Quick Calculation Results * DAQ News Roundup * Data Acquisition Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Tips: DAQ Programming Tools Checklist ________________________________________________________ Many people want to write their own data acquisition routines, and Windmill provide tools to help them. The programming tools take care of all the hardware tasks, leaving developers free to concentrate on their applications. These applications can be re-used with different instruments and devices. Programmers can use the Tools directly from Windows applications like Excel or Access, from JavaScript code running on a web page or when programming in Visual Basic or other langauges that can integrate ActiveX controls. Checklist of Using IML Tools with JavaScript on a Web Page ========================================================== 1. Find your "CLASSID" which identifies the IML Tools. From the Windows Start menu select Run. 2. Enter regedit and press OK. You will be shown a list of registry entries. 3. Click on My Computer. 4. From the Edit menu select Find and search for imltools. 5. You should find imltools.IMLtoolsV6 in MyComputer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ 6. Download the example HTML page from https://www.windmill.co.uk/imltools/jscript.zip and edit the CLASSID to match your own. 7. Edit the example HTML page and JavaScript code to suit your application. Note: Your browser must support ActiveX controls, such as Internet Explorer. For other browsers, like Firefox, you will need a plug-in for ActiveX controls. Further Reading =============== The IML Tools User Manual https://www.windmill.co.uk/help/imltools.pdf Instrumentation with Excel, JavaScript or Visual Basic https://www.windmill.co.uk/tools.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: See Quick Calculation Results ________________________________________________________ Want a quick calculation on a column of numbers but don't need to store the result? Use Excel's status bar. You can see the minimum, maximum, average and sum values. You can also see a count of values, and a count of numerical values. To change the type of calculation, right-click the status bar. In Excel 2007 you can see several results at once. In earlier versions of Excel you can only see the results of one calculation at a time. When you change your data selection in the worksheet, the calculation will be updated. A handy way to make a quick calculation without modifying the spreadsheet. For more tips on using Excel for data acquisition and analysis see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ DAQ News Roundup ________________________________________________________ Welcome to our roundup of the data acquisition and control news. If you would like to receive more timely DAQ news updates then grab our RSS newsfeed at https://www.windmillsoft.com/monitor.xml. Read https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsfeed.php for notes on how to display the news on your own web site, read it via e-mail, mobile phone or a newsfeed viewer. New free compendium of electrotechnical terms The standards organisation, IEC, has launched its electronic and electrical term database online. Known as Electropedia, this makes it easy to find an internationally-agreed technology term, in English, French, German or Spanish. Terms in other langauges (Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish) will be added later. You can search or browse categories, and see definitions of terms. Source: International Electrotechnical Commission http://www.electropedia.org/ Fishbone sensor picks up emergency sounds Tokyo Electron and Tokyo University have created the "fishbone sensor", an audio sensor using the inner working of the human ear as a model. Each of the 24 cantilevers of the fishbone sensor works like a human ear membrane to pick up individual frequencies. After receiving the individual frequencies, the sensor automatically performs FFT (Fast Fourier Transformations) for monitor display. The fishbone sensor is designed to pick up emergency sounds in loud surroundings. Source: The Engineer https://www.theengineer.co.uk/ Sea sponge leads way to cheaper solar cells Marine sponges can harvest silicon from seawater and use it to build spiky filaments all over their body, inspiring the development of a cheap, low-energy method of manufacturing solar cells. The current way of making solar cells is done at high temperature and very low pressure, making it an expensive and energy- intensive process. Source: New Scientist http://www.newscientisttech.com/ Solar Cells That Work All Day Solar cells generally crank out the most power at noon, when the sun is at its highest point and can strike the cell at a 90-degree angle. Before and after noon, efficiencies drop off. But researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute have come up with a prototype that does the opposite. Their solar cell, whose surface consists of hundreds of thousands of 100-micrometer-high towers, catches light at many angles and actually works best in the morning and afternoon. Source: Technology Review http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18539/ New Shock Testing Standard Released NIST has worked with industry, government, professional societies and standards developing organisations to release an international standard for characterising mechanical vibration and shock. The new standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) should be especially useful in environmental testing of products and components in high-technology industries such as computer and aerospace manufacturers. ISO 18431-4:2007 "Mechanical vibration and shock-Signal processing-Part 4: Shock-response spectrum analysis". Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology https://www.nist.gov/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Data Acquisition Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ Every four months we list the forthcoming exhibitions around the world related to data acquisition and control. RFID Solutions Expo (RIDEX) Tokyo, Japan 16-18 May 2007 Radio Frequency Identification solutions: RFID tags, Readers, writers, middlewares and integration services. http://www.ridex.jp/en/ Sensors Expo & Conference Rosemont, Illinois, USA 11-13 June 2007 The only industry event in North America exclusively focusing on sensors and sensor-integrated systems. The conference program examines innovations in measurement & detection, emerging technologies & applications, systems & embedded intelligence, wireless sensing and low-power sensing. http://www.sensorsexpo.com/http://www.sensorsexpo.com/ Nepcon Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 19-22 June 2007 Event dedicated to Malaysia's electronics industry. For state-of-the-art electronic components, assembly, production and test equipment, PCB/SMT microelectronics and semiconductor technology. http://www.nepcon.com.my/ Nepcon Thailand Bangkok, Thailand 21-24 June 2007 Thailand electronics manufacturing including test and measurement equipment and services. http://www.nepconthailand.com ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * Copyright Windmill Software Ltd * Reprinting permitted with this notice included * For more articles see https://www.windmill.co.uk We are happy for you to copy and distribute this newsletter, and use extracts from it on your own web site or publication, providing the above notice is included and a link back to our website is in place. An archive of previous issues is at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html and an index of articles at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html Windmill Software Ltd, PO Box 58, North District Office, Manchester, M8 8QR, UK Telephone: +44 (0)161 834 6688 Facsimile: +44 (0)161 833 2190 E-mail: monitor@windmillsoft.com https://www.windmill.co.uk/ https://www.windmillsoft.com/ Do you have a question, comment or suggestion on this newsletter? Fill in this form to contact the editor.
April 2007
