Windmill Software Ltd
Windows Engineering Software

Monitor Archive

Home
Newsletters
Catalogue
Contents
Search

-----------------------------Monitor-----------------------------
     The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control    
Issue 27               www.windmill.co.uk            October 2000
-------------------------ISSN 1472-0221--------------------------

Welcome to another edition of Monitor from Windmill Software. 

We only send this newsletter to people who have subscribed -- 
should you wish to cancel your free subscription please visit 
http://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html

CONTENTS
========
* Windmill News: Any driver now free with Windmill
* Engineering Units
  - History of the different systems of units
  - Style conventions and rules for using SI Units
  - Why are SI Units the global choice?
* Exhibitions and conferences

_________________________________________________________________

                         Windmill News:                          
               Any Driver now Free with Windmill                

The Windmill data acquisition software suite works with a wide 
range of hardware, and thus has a series of hardware drivers. 
These include:
- the LabIML driver, which handles most instruments with an RS232 
  port
- the Modbus drivers, which handle Modbus devices over RS232 or 
  RS485
- the Harvester driver, which handles Fieldbus networks etc 
  acting as DDE servers

Previously Windmill was supplied with the LabIML driver and other 
drivers were extra. Now, though, our on-line catalogue lets you 
choose any driver when you buy Windmill. 
http://www.windmillsoft.com/acatalog/wm6.html

You are not limited to one driver, however. You can connect many 
different types of hardware and simply buy the requisite drivers 
as the need arises. We've listed more drivers in our catalogue so 
it's easy for you to upgrade your system. For details see
http://www.windmillsoft.com/acatalog/wm6.html
_________________________________________________________________

      Engineering Units: SI, Metric, Imperial and American       

Just over a year ago, the Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into the 
surface of Mars. The main reason was a discrepancy over the units 
used. The navigation software expected data in newton second; the 
company who built the orbiter provided data in pound-force 
seconds. Another, less expensive, disappointment occurs when 
people used to British pints order a pint in the USA, only to be 
served what they consider a short measure. Again the reason is 
confusion over units; this time due to the fact that American 
units, although bearing the same names as British Imperial units, 
often refer to very different measures.

Why are there different systems of units?
=========================================
In 1824 a British Act of Parliament gave precise definitions to 
Imperial units. These included the yard, pound, bushel and 
gallon. Six years later an American survey found weights and 
measures in various ports differed significantly. This led to the 
United States, in 1834, standardising measurements. However, 
although these were named after British units, they were not 
always the same measures as those used in Britain. The gallon 
chosen, for example, was the "Queen Anne wine gallon", which was 
already obsolete in Britain.

The most widely used system of units and measures around the 
world is the Systeme International d'Unites (SI), the modern form 
of the metric system. This originated in France, where in 1790 
the French Academy of Science was commissioned to design a new 
system of units. They decided that:
- The units should be based on unvarying quantities in nature
- Multiples of units should be decimal
- The base units should be used to derive other units
These principles allowed the metric system to evolve and SI units 
have become the fundamental basis of scientific measurement 
world-wide.

                                *

SI Base Units
=============
There are just 7 base units

Quantity             Unit       Symbol

length               metre      m
mass                 kilogram   kg
time                 second     s
temperature          kelvin     K
amount of substance  mole       mol
electric current     ampere     A
luminous intensity   candela    cd

Prefixes are used to indicate powers of ten. They mean that with 
only one unit of measurement you can express any measurement from 
the smallest to the largest. They each have a short name and 
symbol. Large factors have upper case symbols, and small factors 
lower case symbols.

For example:
giga   1 000 000 000  G
mega   1 000 000      M
kilo   1 000          k
milli  0.001          m
micro  0.000 001      µ

Style Conventions and Rules for using SI Units
==============================================
General principles for the writing of unit symbols and numbers 
were first proposed in 1948. These were subsequently adopted and 
elaborated by ISO, the international standards organisation.

1. Unit symbols are printed in roman (upright) type, irrespective 
   of how the rest of the text is printed.
2. Unit symbols are unaltered in the plural.
3. Unit symbols are written without a final full stop (period) 
   except for normal punctuation such as at the end of a 
   sentence.
4. Unit symbols are placed after the numerical value, leaving a 
   space between the value and the symbol. For example 5 V not 
   5V.
5. Unit symbols are generally written in lower case letters, 
   except when the name of the unit is derived from a proper 
   name. (Note that when the name of a unit which is derived from 
   a proper name is written out in full, such as ampere or herz, 
   the name is not capitalised. The only exception to this is 
   Celsius.)
6. The the given SI unit symbol should be used. The symbol for 
   second, for example, is s. To use sec or secs is incorrect. 
7. Unit symbols and unit names shouldn't be mixed. Metre per 
   second, not metre/second or metre/s.

Summary of Advantages of SI Units: Why they are the Global Choice
=================================================================
- No conversions: only one unit for each quantity
- No numbers to memorise: derived units are defined algebraically 
  with no numerical factors
- No long rows of zeros: prefixes are used to indicate powers of 
  ten
- World standard: all other units, including British Imperial and 
  American units, are defined by them
- Not static but evolves to take advantage of increasing accuracy 
  of measurement standards and increasing needs for measurements

                                *

Further Reading
===============
You can find more information on units on these web sites.

National Physical Laboratory (UK)
http://www.npl.co.uk/npl/reference/

NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA)
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/index.html

Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
http://www.bipm.fr/

The Metric System [SI]: A concise reference guide 
http://www.subnet.virtual-pc.com/ba424872/Metric.html

SI Units in Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, 
Russian and Spanish, from James R. Frysinger.
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/SIguidelines.htm

Metric Units and Conversion Charts, T Wildi, 1996, IEEE Press.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0780310500/1286
_________________________________________________________________

                   Exhibitions and Conferences                   
Every other month we list forthcoming exhibitions and conferences 
related to data acquisition and control.

1-2 November
NEMEX, National Energy Management Exhibition
NEC Birmingham UK
Europe's energy managing conference and exhibition. Features 
energy saving solutions, climate change levy debate and a series 
of workshops.
http://www.nemex-energy.co.uk/

7-9 November
Manufacturing Week 2000
NEC Birmingham UK
As well as incorporating the Design Engineering Show and Vehicle 
Engineering & Design, this year's Manufacturing Week also 
includes Automation and  Production. Over 300 exhibitors plan to 
attend. 
http://www.manweek.co.uk/

7-9 November
CIM 2000
NEC Birmingham UK
Computers in Manufacturing. A UK exhibition showing the latest IT 
innovations.
http://www.cimshow.co.uk/

BIAS
7-11 November
Milan Italy
International exhibition for the automation, industrial 
components and instrumentation sectors. It boasts 2,600 
exhibiting companies coming from 30 countries, and an estimated 
60,000 visitors coming from around seventy countries. 
http://www.bias.it/

21-22 November
Instrumentation South East
ExCel London UK
http://www.instrumentation.co.uk/Instse2000.htm

5-10 November
2000 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition 
(ASME)
Walt Disney World Florida USA
The congress aims to provide a program that balances academic, 
research and industrial applications. For design, manufacturing 
and product engineers.
http://www.asme.org/conf/congress00/

28-30 November
SPS/IPC/Drives
Germany
Exhibition for automation technology. Exhibits include: data 
acquisition equipment, sensors and periphery equipment.
http://www.mesago.de/
_________________________________________________________________

* Copyright Windmill Software Ltd
* Reprinting permitted with this notice included
* For more articles see http://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 
http://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html
and an index of articles at 
http://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html

Windmill Software Ltd, PO Box 58, North District Office,
Manchester, M8 8QR, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)161 833 2782
Facsimile: +44 (0)161 833 2190
E-mail: monitor@windmill.co.uk
http://www.windmill.co.uk/
http://www.windmillsoft.com/

Do you have a question, comment or suggestion on this 
newsletter? Fill in this form to contact the editor.

Comments:   
Name:     
Email:    

Subscribing

To receive Monitor every month please fill in your e-mail address below. We will not pass your address to any third parties, nor send you any unsolicited e-mail.