Monitor - ISSN 1472-0221
The Newsletter for Data Acquisition and Control
Issue 300 April 2024
Join us in celebrating our 300th issue!
We're thrilled to celebrate the 300th issue of the Monitor newsletter. Since 1998, we've been a source for in-depth coverage of all things measurement and control. Whether you've been with us from the beginning or are a new reader, thank you.
Over the past 25 years we've covered many data acquisition and control topics. Explore our vast archive of articles to discover a wealth of knowledge on measurement and control topics - see the full list below.
How long have you been a subscriber? Let us know - we'd love to hear from you.
You can download Monitor as a pdf file from https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor/monito300.pdf.
Contents
* Celebrating 300 Issues of Data Aquisition and Control Expertise
* Your DAQ questions answered
Celebrating 300 Issues of Data Aquisition and Control Expertise
Presenting a rich repository of measurement and control knowledge, 25 years in the making.
Our extensive archive houses hundreds of articles, encompassing timeless fundamentals to the latest technology. Most were written in-house but we also have had some guest articles from experts in their field.
Join us on the journey through a recent history of data acquisition and control.
Communications | Data Acquisition and Control Articles | Interfacing Instruments | Windmill Notes | Applications of Data Acquisition | Windmill Products | Other
Applications of Data Acquisition
Used in countless applications in all sorts of different industries and disciplines, how people are using data acquisition software and Microlink hardware.
- investigating reducing cement use with eggshells: Issue 286
- storing CO2 under the sea: Issue 282
- studying damage to reinforced concrete beams: Issue 280
- removing CO2 from biofuels: Issue 279
- measuring the temperature of exploding batteries: Issue 278
- making older buildings safe: Issue 275
- monitoring air quality with laser particle counters: Issue 271
- measuring human cell-level forces: Issue 270
- pH effect on cadmium levels in soil: Issue 262
- increasing storage safety after mineral extraction: Issue 261
- logging pellet moisture: Issue 250
- solving surges in solar power: Issue 248
- quantifying the risk of self-ignition of biomass fuel heaps: Issue 246
- investigating cell forces: Issue 245
- Fires in tunnels: researching the spread of heat and smoke: Issue 241
- Investigating the biomechanics of human tendons: Issue 240
Credit: Giannopoulos A et al CC BY 4.0 - Measuring moisture absorption of shells for biofuels: Issue 239
- automatic passenger counting: Issue 238
- impact testing for drug delivery device: Issue 236
- investigating bio-oil fuel production: Issue 233
- compression testing: Issue 225
- measuring the desiccation and cracking of soil: Issue 198
- aquaculture research - mussel farming: Issue 203
- measuring plankton concentration: Issue 212
- vehicle sensing: Issue 211
- CO2 in research greenhouse: Issue 210
- Nickel Recycling Researchers use Windmill Software: Issue 206
- solving the 5 challenges of human sensing: Issue 205
- researching crop efficiency: Issue 195
- cancer research - interfacing methanol sensor system: Issue 193
- environmental monitoring - pollution from salmon farming: Issue 189
- real-time monitoring of ship structures at sea: Issue 181
- testing trains: Issue 173
- investigating Flood Effects on Building Materials: Issue 171
- Windmill Strain Package aids fit of Prosthetic Limbs : Issue 167
- sensors in agriculture: Issue 127
- radioactive research (interfacing balance): Issue 111
- continuous gas monitoring - soil health: Issue 97
- passenger counting: Issue 95
- environmental monitoring - climate change: Issue 90
- locating moving vehicles (interfacing Garmin GPS): Issue 89
- eco-house monitoring: Issue 87
- materials testing (interfacing Transcell): Issue 81
- computerised irrigation (interfacing tensiometer): Issue 80
- seabed surveying and mapping (interfacing GPS): Issue 76
- environmental monitoring - oil pollution: Issue 75
- wine bottling quality control (interfacing balance): Issue 65
- brake testing in trains: Issue 63
- crash testing: Issue 62
- pollution monitoring of submarine springs (interfacing Garmin GPS): Issue 58
- food processing (interfacing I2C bus): Issue 56
- temperature monitoring of hospital freezers: Issue 54
- environmental monitoring - water table contamination: Issue 51
- emissions monitoring - diesel engines: Issue 48
- fluorescence monitoring (interfacing GPS and fluorometer): Issue 44
- environmental monitoring - fish farming: Issue 41
- data logging from pilot plant (interfacing Molytech): Issue 33
- powder flow rate monitoring: Issues 55, 31
From long established communications like RS22 and GPIB to the later LoRaWan, Bluetooth and MQTT, we've covered over 18 different protocols for communicating with measurement and control instruments.
- Debugging serial communications: Issue 190
- Capturing Data from High-Numbered Com Ports: Issue 177
- RS232 pins: Issue 42
- RS232 handshaking & data flow: Issue 288
- RS232 troubleshooting: Issue 83
- RS232 - Ethernet: Issue 112
- RS232 to USB: Issue 99
- RS232: Issue 15
- RS422: Issue 32
- RS485: Issue 292
- GPIB: Issue 28
- GPRS and GSM: Issue 110
- I2C bus: Issue 287
- Internet of Things: Issue 186
- LoRawan: Issue 269
- modbus: Issues 32, 72, 187
- MQTT: Issue 267
- NMEA: Issues 52, 109
- OBD: Issue 107
- TCP/IP: Issues 259, 264
- USB devices under Windows 8: Issue 188
- USB devices under Windows 10: Issue 207
- USB devices under Windows 11: Issue 290
- USB devices disconnecting: Issue 290
- USB: Issues 24, 186
- USB-Serial: Issues 99, 100
- Bluetooth: Issue 110
- wi-fi: Issue 82
- Wibree: Issue 110
- WiMax: Issue 110
- WIMDA Data: Issue 211
- Wireless: Issues 82, 110
- Wireless Hart: Issue 110
- ZigBee: Issue 110
Data Acquisition and Control Articles
- artificial intelligence and data acquisition in retail: Issue 255
- ai and data acquisition - case studies: Issue 294
Using AI to only count people when the bus doors are open - accuracy: Issue 196
- accuracy of temperature measurements: Issue 281
- analogue inputs: Issue 4
- analogue outputs: Issue 36
- analogue to digital converters: Issue 204
- choosing a daq system: Issues 291, 49
- computer vision: Issues 289
- control and waves: generating analogue signals: Issues 289
- control: Issues 36, 71
- controlling equipment by switching relays: Issue 201
- counter and timers: Issue 284
- counting and timing terms: Issue 7
- current: Issue 69
- difference between instrument, device, channel and module
- data logging: Issue 79
- data acquisition under Windows 10: Issue 209
- dgps: Issue 89
- differential inputs: Issue 11
- digital outputs: Issue 71
- drift and calibration: Issue 295
- electoforming: Issue 37
- emission monitoring : Issue 6
- energy monitoring: Issue 39
- engineering units: Issue 27
- excitation: Issue 106
- filtering: Issue 298
- fixing fluctuating measurements: Issue 274
- gas sensors: Issue 91
- gps: Issue 30
- human sensing: Issue 205
- isolation: Issue 237
- linearisation: Issue 299
- LVDT, measuring small changes in position: Issue 266
- measurement standards: Issue 14
- multiplexing: Issue 152
- noise: Issue 276
- pH: Issue 283
- precision: Issue 196
- process mimic design: Issue 209
- product testing: Issue 12
- rainfall: Issue 23
- range and resolution: Issue 231
- relay switching: Issue 71
- resistance: Issue 1
- rtd: Issue 5
- sampling rate: Issue 130
- sensors in the sea: Issue 119
- signal conditioning: Issue 215
- simultaneous sampling: Issue 26
- single-ended inputs: Issue 11
- smart sensors: Issue 273
- smart city sensors: Issue 221
- what makes a city smart: Issue 265
- strain: Issue 17
- thermocouple: Issues 5, 50
- temperature measurement accuracy: Issue 281
- transient capture: Issue 59
- triggering acquisition: Issue 226
- vehicle sensing: Issue 211
- virtual machines: Issue 260
- voltage: Issue 229
- weather: Issue 23
- windspeed: Issue 23
A sample of how people used our Widndmill software, and example settings to do so.
- Adam 4018 Thermocouple Input Module: Issue 166
- Froude Consine Texcel: Issue 87
- Garmin GPS
- ICP DAS I-7000 Module: Issue 135
- Mettler Toledo: Issue 84
- Molytek 2702: Issue 33
- Ohaus balance: Issue 198
- Parallax basic stamp: Issue 85
- Quadra Check 2000: Issue 36
- Remontic sonar: Issue 132
- Rice Lake balance: Issue 214
- tensiometer: Issue 80
- torque: Issue 254
- Sartorius: Issue 114
- Sylvac Dial Gauge: Issue 116
- Vitrek High Voltage Meter: Issue 222
- YSI Dissolved Oxygen Meter: Issue 191
Windmill Notes
Tips on using our (now free to subscribers) software.
- installing: Issue 19
- tips on using: Issue 178
- files - Windmill: Issue 56
- files - backup: Issue 113
- files - setup: Issue 87
- speed of sampling / maximum frequency: Issue 256
- alarm handling: Issue 68
- charting data: Issues 34, 209
- controlling digital outputs: Issue 230
- data logging: Issues 20, 78, 202
- enabling Logger buttons: Issues 25
- interfacing more than 10 devices: Issue 207
- how to start logging data when you switch on the computer: Issue 202
- logging data when you press a button on your instrument: Issue 163
- manually entering data into a log file, Issue 77
- DDE: Issue 67
- parsing data: Issue 69
- pid control: Issue 81
- setting up Windmill with your hardware: Issue 293
- using Windmill with digital outputs: Issue 230
- COMIML: Issues 95, 104
- using Windmill Graphics: Issue 75
- using Windmill with plcs: Issue 47
- connecting USB units: Issue 94
- Readers of Monitor help improve ComDebug, see Issue 180
- Monitor strain gauges over the internet, see Issue 179
- Thermocouple data logger also measures voltage, flow, level, etc: Issue 169
- Windmill announce Microlink 851 ethernet unit: Issue 165
- People Counting software: Issue 170
- New pH data logger is built for accuracy and reliability: Issue 168
- 751Sbox for strain measurement: Issue 101
- 751-SG for strain measurement: Issue 53
- people counting software: Issue 88 97,
- pH unit: Issue 172
- Enhanced Windmill: Issue 174
- Test-seq for incinerators: Issue 6
- USB products compared: Issue 94
- Windmill 826 for utility meter monitoring: Issue 56
- Windmill Replay to re-run charts of data: Issue 23
- Excel corners: see excel.html and excel-charting.html
- Access: Issues 21 & 295
- LibreOffice: Issues 217
- OpenOffice: Issues 84, 85, 217
- Powerpoint: Issue 129
- Visual Basic: Issues 13, 14, 15, 16
Thank you again for being a subscriber. And don't forget, if you want to try the software email monitor@windmillsoft.com for your free copy.
Your DAQ Questions Answered
Question
"Good afternoon,
We urgently need a copy of your windmill software sending over as a free download for running on a new PC data logging computer required for a research project.Can you please action this or suggest any other way we can obtain this.Do we need a license for this as we are currently running Windmill on 3 independent machines in the lab?
Any suggestions helpful.
Thanks
"
Answer
Just email monitor@windmillsoft.com for a new free copy. After installation you will be asked for a Release key to authorise the software. Email us with the Request key (a 7 character code) generated by the computer and we will then send you the Release key to enter on the same screen. And away you go.
