-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 113 www.windmill.co.uk December 2007 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Greetings of the Season to you. 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 Notes: Backing up your Windmill System * DAQ News Roundup * Data acquisition and control exhibitions ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Notes: Backing up your Windmill System ________________________________________________________ Windmill stores all its configuration files in text files. You can easily back these up and if necessary completely restore your Windmill system. The files you need to back up depend upon which version of Windmill you are using and which Windmill programs you have. In all cases you will need to make a copy of: iml.ini - this holds the configuration data you set using the ConfIML program. *.ims - this holds the settings you specified in SetupIML (channel names, engineering units, etc.) If you have saved your Windmill Logger, Chart, DDE Panel and Control Panel settings then you will need: *.wlg (Logger) *.wch (Chart) *.wdp (DDE Panel) *.wao (AnalogOut) *.wdo (DigitalOut) Windmill 4.3 only files *.aid (LabIML serial driver) windmill.ini If you have any of these optional Windmill programs, back up: *.imd (COMIML serial driver, Windmill 5 or 6) *.wgr (Graphics) *.wts (Test-Seq) *.wst (Streamer) *.wci (CountIt) *.cot (Cut-Out Tester) almset.mdb (Alarm Logger) imldde.ini (Harvester) For version 4.3 of Windmill, the iml.ini and windmill.ini files will be in the Windows folder. All other files are in the Windmill folder. For Windmill versions 5 and 6, files will be in the windmill/setups/ folder, or to wherever you set the "working directory". For more information on the Windmill software, see https://www.windmill.co.uk/programs.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. Organic transistor improves with age A plastic transistor doubles its performance if simply left to sit at room temperature for a week. Cheap to mould, pentacene transistors are a promising candidate for organic electronics. A team in Zurich has found that if a newly made pentacene transistor is left to sit in a vacuum, the defects disappear naturally. Source: New Scientist https://www.newscientist.com/ Water sensor locates leaks A new, inexpensive sensor locates water leaks from utility company pipes. The new probes function on the same principle as mass air flow sensors, which have been used for some time to measure the air intake in car engines. At the heart of the sensor are two heating wires. An electric current flowing through the wires heats them to a constant temperature. When cold water flows past them, the front wire gives off more heat into the water than the rear one, which is in its slipstream. Accordingly, a higher current has to flow through the front wire in order to keep the temperature constant. It is thus possible to determine the speed and volume of the water traveling through the pipes. https://www.theengineer.co.uk/ Intelligent software helps build perfect robotic hand Scientists in Portsmouth and Shanghai are working on intelligent software that will take them a step closer to building the perfect robotic hand. The technology has the potential to revolutionise the manufacturing industry. They used a cyberglove covered in tiny sensors to capture data about how the human hand moves. Source: University of Portsmouth http://www.port.ac.uk/aboutus/newsandevents/ China surges ahead on clean energy spending CHINA is leaving the US in the dust in its spending on clean energy - but it still has plenty to do if it is to shake off its sooty reputation. According to a new study China will invest more than $10 billion on renewable energy this year - double the amount invested by the US in 2006. Source: New Scientist http://environment.newscientist.com/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Data Acquisition Exhibitions and Conferences ________________________________________________________ Every four months we list the forthcoming exhibitions around the world related to data acquisition and control. INTERNEPCON Japan Tokyo Japan 16-18 January 2008 Electronics manufacturing event for the design, fabrication, assembly, packaging and testing of printed circuits and electronic assemblies. Part of the global Nepcon series of events. http://www.nepcon.jp/english/ IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium San Diego California USA 12-14 February 2008 Forum for sensor users and developers to meet and exchange information about novel and emergent applications in smart sensors, biology, system health management, and related areas. http://www.sensorapps.org/ Nepcon Korea Seoul 20-22 February 2008 Exhibition for the electronics components and manufacturing industries. http://www.smtpcb.org/ PV EXPO 2008 27-28 February 2008 Tokyo Japan International photovoltaic power generation exhibition, specialising in all kinds of devices, manufacturing equipment and solar cells. http://www.pvexpo.jp/ Automaticon 1-4 April 2008 Warsaw Poland Trade fair for automation, control, measurement and robotics. http://www.automaticon.pl/english/ Instrumentation North 9-10 April 2008 Leeds UK Exhibition of sensors & transducers, controls & PLCs, electronics test and measurement, quality assurance and data acquisition. http://www.instrumentation.co.uk/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * 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/
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