-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 150 www.windmill.co.uk January 2011 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to the 150th issue of Monitor. In it we are delighted to launch the new version of Windmill software and to offer you an introductory 65% discount on the price! Visit https://www.windmillsoft.com/daqshop/software.html or see below for more details. We hope you find the newsletter useful, but should you wish to remove yourself from our mailing list please go to Monitor Newsletter CONTENTS ======== * Windmill News: Windmill 7 Available Now! * Excel Corner: Forest Plots and Horizontal Stock Charts * Data Acquisition and Control News Roundup * Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill News: Windmill 7 Available Now! ________________________________________________________ Today we are very pleased to be launching Windmill 7 data acquisition software, for the fantastic introductory price of just £50, 60 Euros or $80. This is a huge reduction on our normal price of £145. For this you get - Logging, charting and output control software - Serial driver to collect data from the majority of devices that plug into the PC's com port and communicate over RS232, RS422, RS485, Modbus or TCP/IP - Save data in text files or transfer in real-time to other programs like Excel and Access - Free technical support for life - A money back guarantee: if the software doesn't suit you we'll refund your money - Compatability with Windows 10, 8, 7 32- and 64-bit, Vista, XP and 98 Also included is the ComDebug software which lets you trouble-shoot serial communications. It handles messages in both binary and ASCII formats. You can see all bytes sent and received, even non-printing characters like carriage returns. This is crucial when dealing with binary data. ComDebug also lets you see the state of the input and output lines to the computer's COM port. There are several optional Windmill programs which you can add as needs be. For example Windmill Graphics lets you create your own display and control windows: process mimics, virtual instruments...whatever you wish. You can buy the new software at the low introductory price from https://www.windmillsoft.com/daqshop/software.html Alternatively call us on +44 (0)161 834 6688. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Forest Plots and Horizontal Stock Charts ________________________________________________________ This week we were asked how to reverse the axes of a stock chart, in order to create a forest plot. Originally a stock chart was intended for plotting stock market movements, showing high, low and close prices. However, it is also useful in scientific settings. For example you could use it to show a day's high, low and average temperatures. A forest plot shows the mean value of sets of data, with horizontal bars showing confidence intervals. Unfortunately you can't reverse the axes of a stock chart. However, you can simulate a horizontal stock chart by using a scatter chart with error bars. In our temperature example we had 4 columns: Date, High, Low and Mean. Create an xy scatter chart showing Mean temperature on the x axis against Date on the y axis. We now need to add some "error bars" showing the difference between the High and Low temperatures and the Mean. Add another 2 columns to your spreadsheet: one showing High minus Mean and one showing Mean minus Low. You could call these Hotter and Cooler. Double-click the data series in the chart. Go to the X Error Bars tab, click in the Custom Positive (+) box, and with the mouse select the "Hotter" data (High minus Mean). In the Custom Negative (-) box copy the "Cooler" data. Click OK You can now format the error bars. Double-click one, go to the Patterns tab and remove the marker. You should now have your horizontal stock chart. You can also use this technique to create a forest plot. Any questions? Fill in the form at https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ Further Reading: Excel Charting Tips 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 live news on your own web site. Setting Standards: NIST Wants to Hear From You America's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is expanding its work with the private sector to develop new standards for a range of vital industries such as emergency communications and tracking, green manufacturing and high-performance green building construction. Source: NIST https://www.nist.gov/ Cloaking device hides underwater objects from sonar A team at the University of Illinois has built a metallic disc that can bend underwater sound waves around an object. The team based its design on an electronic circuit, using ring-shaped channels to transfer the sound waves from one side of the disc to the other and avoid the object hidden in the centre. Source: The Engineer https://www.theengineer.co.uk/ Auto Gas Sensors to Hit 177 Million New report forecasts that tightening emission and fuel economy mandates, including legislation in the emerging markets, could result in the annual deployment of 177 million gas sensors in the market by 2017. The majority of these sensors will measure oxygen in the exhaust system, with sophisticated wideband planar sensors coming to the fore. Source: Strategy Analytics http://www.strategyanalytics.com/d Robotic Fish could perform underwater recovery operations Researchers at Northwestern University have created a robotic fish that can move from swimming forward and backward to swimming vertically almost instantaneously. The robot, created after observing and creating computer simulations of the black ghost knifefish, could pave the way for nimble robots that could perform underwater recovery operations or long-term monitoring of coral reefs. Source: SCUBA Travel http://news.scubatravel.co.uk/ Sensors to detect explosives, monitor food Monitoring everything from explosives to tainted milk, materials for use in creating sensors for detection devices have been developed by a University of Houston chemist and his team. Source: University of Houston http://www.uh.edu/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Data Acquisition Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ Exhibitions coming up around the world related to data acquisition and control. ISRACHEM 22-24 February Tel Alviv Israel International exhibition on industrial processing, chemical engineering, metal finishing, measurement, control and instrumentation. ARABLAB EXPO 7-10 March Dubai Middle East & Africa Expo for the global laboratory and instrumentation industry. Showcases the very latest lab and instrumentation equipment. http://www.arablab.com/ AIMEX - AUTOMATION WORLD 8-11 March Seoul South Korea Korea international automation instrumentation & control system exhibition. http://automationworld.co.kr/ M+R ANTWERPEN 17 March Antwerp Belgium Exhibition on measurement and control instrumentation in the process industry. http://www.m-r.be/ METROLOGY ASIA 23-26 March Singapore International precision measurement & testing exhibition. http://www.mta-asia.com/ AUTOMATICON 5-8 April Warsaw Poland Trade fair for automation, control, measurement and robotics. http://www.automaticon.pl/english/ AUTOMATISA 6-8 April Bogata Colombia Trade show dedicated to instrumentation, automation and plant intelligence. http://www.feria-automatisa.com/ ANALYTICA VIETNAM 7-9 April Ho chi Minh Vietnam International trade fair and conference for analytical instrumentation, biotechnology, laboratory technology and services. http://www.analyticavietnam.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/
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