What's New in Measurement and Control?

The latest news, tutorials and articles on data acquisition and control using personal computers.

New Electronic Archive of Research Papers - (Found June 19, 2008 )

E-Print ArXiv is a fully automated electronic archive and distribution server for research papers. It covers areas such as physics and related disciplines, mathematics, non-linear sciences and computer science. The e-prints on E-Print ArXiv are freely accessible for everyone. The E-Print ArXiv data in Scirus are retrieved through the Open Archives Initiative.
http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/aboutus/#sources

How to Connect a Transcell Digital Indicator to a PC - (Found June 19, 2008 )

Free Windmill software now lets you interface Transcell TI-500 digital indicators, and other instruments with an RS232 serial port, to a PC running Windows. A free data logging program can continuously collect readings, or data can be sent straight to other programs like Excel.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/trancell.html

Reading RS232 Instruments over WiFi Networks - (Found June 19, 2008 )

You can use instruments with RS232 ports over WiFi networks. To do this you need a serial device server. This will make your balance, GPS receiver, multimeter, fluorometer, force gauge, torque meter, etc. appear as if it were connected to the COM port. You can therefore use any data acquisition software which reads RS232 instruments to log data from your instrument, such as the Windmill COMIML software.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/monitor82.html#RS232

Count visitors to buildings wirelessly - (Found June 19, 2008 )

Building managers can now connect automatic people counting systems to the PC over a WiFi wireless network. Previously, the people counters from Biodata were connected to the PC over RS232, RS485 or Ethernet cables, or via a modem. The new WiFi option speeds up installation and reduces cabling costs.
http://www.buildingtalk.com/news/bod/bod100.html

Troubleshooting RS232 Connections - (Found June 19, 2008 )

New tips on connecting measurement instruments and devices to the computer's COM port. Discover where to find free troubleshooting software, how to check the COM port is working correctly, what to do about cabling errors and which handshaking settings to use.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/wiring.html#Serial

Data Acquisition using the Free OpenOffice Spreadsheet - (Found June 19, 2008 )

You can use the free OpenOffice suite of software to collect data from almost any measurement device with an RS232 port.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/openoffice.html

Connecting a Mettler Toledo Balance to a Windows PC - (Found June 19, 2008 )

Free software lets you automatically collect data from a Mettler Toledo balance. For PCs running Windows software like Excel.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/mettler.html

Free Software to Interface a Parallax BASIC Stamp to Excel - (Found June 19, 2008 )

The BASIC Stamp is already noted for the ease it has brought to resolving control technology problems. Its use of the BASIC language with inbuilt control instructions can dramatically shorten industrial development time. The free Windmill software can read ASCII data and be configured to pass information directly to an application like Excel.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/stamp.html

Monitoring Fuel-Consumption via the On Board Diagnostics - (Found June 19, 2008 )

Robert Kwiatkowski wanted to see his fuel consumption in real-time. Unfortunately his truck did not give him this information, so he designed his own fuel consumption monitoring system using the free Windmill data acquisition software. He connected his laptop to the On Board Diagnostics system of his Ford Expedition, used Windmill to collect data from the truck and Excel to calculate and display his current fuel consumption.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/fuel.html

Monitoring Liquid Uptake in Rock Samples - (Found June 19, 2008 )

Free Windmill software helps research into radioactivity at the Yucca mountain.
http://www.windmill.co.uk/rock.html