-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 57 www.windmill.co.uk April 2003 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to April edition of Monitor, the newsletter for data acquisition and control. We only send Monitor to people who have subscribed - should you wish to cancel your free subscription please do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill News: Accurately measure resistance via USB * Excel Corner * Data Acquisition Exhibitions and Conferences ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill News: Accurately Measure Resistance via USB ________________________________________________________ Now available from our on-line catalogue: the Microlink 752 Resistance unit. Not only does it measure resistance, it also allows you to control voltage and current outputs, count up to 65535 and monitor analogue and digital voltage signals. The compact unit, measuring 180 x 120 x 40 mm, plugs into the PC's USB socket. Quick and easy to install, it is supplied with our Windmill software suite of Windows logging, charting, display and control applications. Also included in the package is free technical support for life. The Microlink 752 has been designed for accurate resistance measurement and you can use it with 4-wire cabling. This arrangement negates the resistance in the leads which otherwise would lead to errors in the readings. You could also use 2-, 3- or 4-wire compensated wiring. Measuring the change in resistance is used, for example, to acquire temperature, displacement or light level data. The Microlink 752 resistance package costs 895 GB pounds. For more information see https://www.windmillsoft.com/daqshop/resistance.html or contact sales@biodataltd.com For more on measuring resistance see Issue 1 of Monitor https://www.windmill.co.uk/transducer.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner ________________________________________________________ After last month's discussion on logging data only when readings changed, we were asked how to use Excel's SetLinkOnData method to do so from all instrument channels. To do this 1. In Windmill DDE Panel select the Copy to Clipboard button and copy data from All Channels. 2. From Excel's Edit menu choose Paste Special and "Paste as Links" into the first row of a worksheet called "Sheet1". 3. Create the macro given below and run MonitorDDE. The MonitorDDE routine monitors a worksheet which is being updated via DDE. When values change, it calls the LogData procedure which progressively writes the readings into new rows in the worksheet. * Dim NoOfRows As Integer Sub MonitorDDE() NoOfRows = 1 ' Monitors the DDE links for updates ' When data is updated runs the subroutine LogData ActiveWorkbook.SetLinkOnData "WINDMILL|Data!AllChannels", "LogData" End Sub Sub LogData() NoOfRows = NoOfRows + 1 ddechan = DDEInitiate("WINDMILL", "Data") ' Requests readings from all the channels shown in the ' Windmill DDE Panel program and stores them in an array ' called mydata. mydata = DDERequest(ddechan, "AllChannels") ' Ignores any warnings generated On Error Resume Next ' Finds the lower & upper boundaries of array, to ' determine the number of columns needed to store ' the data. Lower = LBound(mydata, 1) Upper = UBound(mydata, 1) ' Inserts data from the array into a row of cells in a ' worksheet called Sheet1. For Column = Lower To Upper Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(NoOfRows, Column).Value = mydata(Column) Next Column DDETerminate (ddechan) End Sub * For more tips on using Excel with Windmill see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html For more on the SetLinkOnData method see Monitor issue 56 https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor56.html or the Microsoft site http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Data Acquisition Exhibitions and Conferences ________________________________________________________ Continuing our bi-monthly listing of exhibitions and conferences related to data acquisition and control. ISA Ireland 29 April Cork. Ireland The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society exhibition and seminar http://www.iol.ie/~isaire/exp.html Manufacturing Excellence 29 April - 1 May Yarm Teedside UK Presentations and papers on instrumentation, energy efficiency, pharmaceuticals, safety, etc. http://www.manufacturingexcellence.net/ Sensor 2003 13-15 May Nuremberg Exhibition Centre Germany Features sensors plus measuring and control technology. http://www.sensorfairs.de/neu/indexe.html Industria 27-30 May Budapest Fair Centre Hungary International trade fair featuring electronic measuring instruments, control engineering, automation, data collection, energy management, etc. http://www.industria.hu/nyito_eng.php ________________________________________________________ * 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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