-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 73 www.windmill.co.uk August 2004 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to Issue 73 of Monitor. This month we're pleased to announce new software dedicated to counting people (or, in UK parlance, footfall counting). We also have the regular Excel corner and our tri-monthly listing of measurement and control exhibitions. We hope you enjoy this issue of Monitor , but should you wish to cancel your subscription you can do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill News: New Dedicated People Counting Software * Excel Corner: Starting and Stopping Windmill Logger * Data Acquisition and Control Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill News: New Dedicated People Counting Software ________________________________________________________ A year ago we announced that Windmill software had been chosen for a new people counting system (https://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor61.html). We now offer a program dedicated to counting people (or, in UK parlance, measuring retail footfall), which is easier to use for those who do not need the full capabilities of Windmill. The benefits of the new software include: - It can now communicate with the counting units over Ethernet, as well as over RS232, RS485 and modem links. - Users can now do everything from one program: setting up the counting units, downloading counts, viewing live counts and occupancy levels, and analysing footfall data. - The results can be imported into almost any third- party reporting software. Users are therefore free to use whatever software they wish to process the data and are not tied to the manufacturer's reporting software. - The software can handle counts from outdoors and thus be used for pedestrian counting. - It can perform calculations on the data, such as combining the count from several entrances. For more details contact sales@biodataltd.com. For more on people counting systems see https://www.retailsensing.com/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Using Excel to Start and Stop the Windmill Logger Program at Pre-Determined Times ________________________________________________________ The Windmill Logger program saves readings from instruments and sensors to disk (temperature, weight, position, strain, pressure, etc). It does this at regular intervals, every minute for example. You can instruct Logger to start logging in a number of ways, for example when: - your equipment sends new data; - readings cross one of your alarm thresholds; - you press the space bar on the keyboard; - you press the software Start button. Likewise you can tell Logger to stop logging when: - you press the software Stop button; - your chosen logging duration expires. However, there may be times when you would prefer to automatically start and stop Logger at pre-determined times. You can do this with the Windmill Test-Seq program (https://www.windmillsoft.com/daqshop/test-control.html) or with Excel. * Using Excel to Start and Stop Logger ==================================== If you want to use Excel to start and stop Windmill Logger, then you need to create a macro to do so. Here is an example of the code needed. Sub StartLoggerMacro() WaitTime End Sub Sub WaitTime() ' Waits until a time of day in 24 hour format - here 9.30 am and 0 seconds ' Then runs the StartLogger subroutine Application.OnTime Date + TimeSerial(9, 30, 0), "StartLogger" ' Waits until a time of day then runs the StopLogger subroutine Application.OnTime Date + TimeSerial(12, 45, 0), "StopLogger" End Sub Sub StartLogger() ' Starts the Logger program. See the Notes below. Shell "start c:\windmill\logger.exe demo1.wlg /AUTO" End Sub Sub StopLogger() ' Starts a DDE conversation with Logger ddeChan = DDEInitiate("Logger", "Commands") ' Sends the Destroy command to close Logger DDEExecute ddeChan, "Destroy" ' Ends the DDE conversation DDETerminate (ddeChan) End Sub Notes: 1. Replace c:\windmill\logger.exe with the path to your Logger program. 2. Replace demo1.wlg with the name of your Logger setup file. More Information: ================= For more details of Test-Seq or Logger, visit https://www.windmill.co.uk/ or contact sales@biodataltd.com. For more on using Excel with Windmill see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Data Acquisition and Control Exhibitions ________________________________________________________ AADECA 30 Aug - 3 September Buenos Aires Argentina Control Automation Week organised by the Argentine Association of Automatic Control. For instrumentation, software, engineering, research and education. http://www.aadeca.org/ GO. AUTOMATION DAYS 31 Aug - 3 September Basel Switzerland International automation fair includes industrial control and sensor systems. https://www.mch-group.com/ Instrumentation Scotland and Offshore Systems 8-9 September Aberdeen Scotland Sensors and transducres, control and PLCs, data acquisition, test and meaurement exhibition. http://www.instrumentation.co.uk/ Remote Sensing 13-17 September Maspalomas, Gran Canaria, Spain Covers remote sensing for agriculture, ocean, environmental monitoring and GIS. http://spie.org/ MICONEX 14-17 September Beijing China International fair for measurement, instrumentation and automation. Organised by China Instrument and Control Society (CIS). http://www.cis.org.cn/ http://www.world-fima.com/ Automatizace 20-24 September Brno Czech Republic Biennial exhibition on measurement, control, automation and regulation. http://www.bvv.cz/automatizace-gb/ MeasComp and Sensors 28-30 September Wiesbaden Germany http://www.sensors-meascomp.com/ Progressive Technologies in Automation 29 September - 8 October Moscow Russia Exhibition dedicated to process automation and embedded systems. http://www.pta-expo.ru/en/ ISA Expo 5-7 October Houston Texas USA Automation and control conference, training and exhibition. Organised by the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society. https://www.isa.org/rd.cfm?id=4801 Smart Automation Austria 6-8 October Linz Austria Measurement and control exhibition. http://www.smart-automation.at/ Drives and Controls 12-14 October Telford UK Covers the drives, motors, transmissions and automation markets. http://www.drivesexpo.com/ HET Instrument 1-5 November Utrecht The Netherlands 25th Anniversary of this industrial automation and laboratory technologies exhibition. http://www.hetinstrument.nl/ Asian Conference on Remote Sensing 3-7 November Chiang Mai Thailand http://www.aars-acrs.org/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * 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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