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Product Testing over I2C

During high quality chicken processing, carcasses are scalded in a bath of hot water to loosen the feathers. The temperature of the scalder needs to be controlled and the SenTrolSMB company are developing an I2C-based thermostat to do so. They have chosen Windmill data acquisition software to help them with this, and to verify that the scalder is working properly.

Windmill captures and displays temperature data before passing it to an Excel spreadsheet for later analysis. SenTrolSMB are intending to develop a complete I2C network using Windmill as the PC data collection and control software. They made the decision to use Windmill partly because of the Graphics program, which will let them quickly build an individual control panel interface for each customer.

The I2C bus, developed by Philips, is a 2-wire serial bus. SenTrolSMB uses Windmill with I2C devices by means of an RS232 to I2C converter. This plugs into the COM port of a PC.

To use Windmill with I2C devices you need one of the Windmill serial drivers. The latest one, called COMIML, is available from http://www.windmillsoft.com/comiml.html. The older one, LabIML, is free to Monitor subscribers.