Windmill Software Ltd
Windows Engineering Software

Installation Tips

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The complete, ready-to-run, Windmill software suite for Windows 3.1, 95 and later is now available to our Monitor Newsletter subscribers free of charge!

Help with Installing Windmill

The Windmill installation program is compressed into a file called windmill.zip.

1. Unzip windmill.zip into a temporary folder.
2. Run the installation program (setup.exe).
3. Decline when asked if you want to run the program.

The free download includes two drivers: the Software Signal Generator and LabIML. The Signal Generator simulates a device with seven channels, each channel producing a different signal. You don't need any acquisition hardware: the data values are produced by calculation. The Signal Generator is useful for getting to know the Windmill programs independently of your hardware. LabIML lets you collect real data from your serial instrument.

To use Windmill with the Signal Generator

1. Run SetupIML.
2. Select "Create New Setup".
3. Type a name and description for the new setup.
4. The data channels of the Signal Generator are shown. You can now give them suitable names, set their input ranges, choose the engineering units and set alarm levels. Double-click a channel and make your choices.
5. Select Save from the File menu and close SetupIML.
6. Open DDE Panel. From its File menu select Load Hardware Setup, and choose the file you've just saved in SetupIML.
7. Connect some channels to DDE Panel. You will see the data from these channels regularly updating
8. Open Chart. From its File menu select Load Hardware Setup then connect some channels to Chart.
9. Press Start. The channels you have chosen are charted.
10. Open Logger and do the same as for Chart, but this time naming a file in which to save data.

Collect Real Data

Once you've familiarised yourself with Windmill you'll want to connect your ASCII instrument and see real data. There are 4 basic steps to this. (You may first want to disable the Signal Generator in SetupIML.)

1. Determine how your instrument communicates. Check whether we have notes on interfacing your instrument. If not read your instrument's manual and find out the baud rate, handshaking protocol and message formats. You can quickly confirm that your computer can communicate with the instrument using these settings by means of the Windmill comDebug Terminal Emulator program. You can download a free copy of this from our on-line catalogue. comDebug also lets you experiment with different settings to extract data.
2. Close any open Windmill programs and their device icons.
3. Run the ConfIML program. This detects your instrument drivers and saves a record of the hardware you want to use. You need to add the LabIML ASCII instrument handler and enter your instrument's communication settings. To do this
   1. Press the Add button.
   2. Select LabIML RS232 ASCII Instrument Handler.
   3. Type a name for the instrument, the number of data channels it has and a description. (Each channel holds one type of data item: if unsure of the number of channels enter more than you think you will need.)
   4. You can now specify your instrument's settings. Make sure you set the data persistence time to longer than your proposed sampling speed. If unsure of any of the other settings leave them at the defaults. (To later return to this box press the Settings button.)
   5. You now need to define how to extract data. Press the Channels buttons and enter a Reply Parse string. For more details see either http://www.windmill.co.uk/parse.html or the LabIML Help topic "Parsing Messages From Instruments".
   6. The next step is to enter your communications settings. (To later return to this box press the Comms button.)
   7. Save your settings and close ConfIML.
4. Run the SetupIML program. This lets you specify how you want to use your instrument. When you start SetupIML it automatically interrogates the hardware and builds a default setup file. You can then either use the file as it is, or edit the file - tailoring the system to your needs. For example, you can give names to your instrument channels, specify their engineering units and choose their ranges. You can save libraries of setup files for different test runs or experiments.
   Follow the points 1 to 5 of the instructions given for the Software Signal Generator above, but configure your hardware instead of the Signal Generator. To do this select LabIML from the Device menu and double-click your channels to choose names, units, ranges and alarm levels.
   
5. You are now ready to use the Windmill logging, charting, display and control programs, as detailed for the Software Signal Generator (points 6-9 above). Should you wish to analyse data in a program like Excel, use the Windmill DDE Panel to copy and paste links between your instrument channels and cells in the spreadsheet.
6. Success? Please let us know how you are using Windmill.

Note: in future sessions you can skip steps 1-4 and only need to run the Windmill logging, charting, dispay or control programs.

Need More Help?

• All the Windmill programs have full on-line Help. Use the Help's browse, contents or search buttons to find the information you are looking for. To download the latest Help files visit our Help page.
• See our technical support index.
• We have also provided answers to "frequently asked questions".
• It may be that someone has already used your instrument with Windmill and sent us their set-up files.You can then simply copy these into your Windmill folder and load them in ConfIML and SetupIML. See if your instrument is represented in our Setup File Library . (If not, perhaps you would send us your files when you have finished your installation.)
• Contact us.