-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 77 www.windmill.co.uk December 2004 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to December's Monitor. We wish you a peaceful New Year. Should you wish to cancel your subscription to Monitor you can do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill News: Data Acquisition News Available via PHP * Windmill Notes: Manually Entering Data into a Log File * Excel Corner: Time Stamping in Tenths of Seconds ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill News: Data Acquisition News Available via PHP ________________________________________________________ You can now display live news headlines in your web site using PHP. The news is selected by human editors and so is guaranteed relevant to the data acquisition, control, measurement and instrumentation fields. For how to do this see https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsfeed.php You can also keep up-to-date by having the news delivered by e-mail, view it in news aggregator software or show it in a "ticker" on your PC's desktop. Again, details are at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsfeed.php If you already receive other RSS news feeds you can grab ours at https://www.windmillsoft.com/monitor.xml ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Notes: Manually Entering Data into a Log File ________________________________________________________ The Windmill Logger program saves data from sensors and instruments in an ASCII file. It also records the time of each reading. There may be occasions, though, when you want to include other data in the file. For example, you might want to make a note of a batch number or include somebody's name. You can do this in Windmill using the Blackboard and AnalogOut programs. AnalogOut is included with every copy of the Windmill suite. Amongst other things, it lets you use the computer's keyboard to enter data into the sytem. You also need the Blackboard program to store the data until it is picked up by Windmill Logger. You can think of AnalogOut as chalking words and numbers onto the Blackboard, where they remain for a pre-specified time. During this time Logger can read the information and save it alongside the other data it is collecting. Further Reading =============== For more on Blackboard and AnalogOut, either see their Help files or contact sales@biodataltd.com. The latest versions of the Help files are available from https://www.windmill.co.uk/help.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Time Stamping in Tenths of Seconds ________________________________________________________ In Issue 74 of Monitor I explained how to use Excel to log data from instruments, and also display the time of each data reading. That method displayed the time to the nearest second. But what if you are logging data quicker than once a second? This month I explain how to display the time in fractions of a second. First of all decide how many columns of logged data you are going to need. In this example I'll assume you are logging from one data channel and placing the readings in column A. The time stamp will be placed in the next column - column B in my example - and you need to format this column to show fractions of a second. Formatting the Time Stamp Column ================================ 1. Select the entire column by clicking on its letter. 2. From the Format menu choose Cells. 3. Select the Custom Number category. 4. Into the Type: box, enter hh:mm:ss.0 for tenths of seconds or hh:mm:ss.00 for hundredths of seconds. If you would also like the date inserted, type instead dd/mm/yy hh:mm:ss.0 Getting the Time ================ You now need to insert this formula into an unused cell: =NOW() For example, into cell C1. You are now ready to create the macro to collect data. Copy the code below, but edit this line so it references the cell containing the NOW formula. Cells(NoOfRows, Column).Value = Range("C1") -- 'Start of Macro Declare Sub Sleep Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwMilliseconds As Long) Sub SampleData() 'If NoOfRows = 1, the first data value 'will be placed in row 1. NoOfRows = 1 'Ask for number of sets of samples to be collected. NoOfSamples = Val(InputBox("Please enter no of samples to collect", "No of Samples")) 'Ask for the time to wait between taking each set of samples SamplePeriod = InputBox("Please enter sample interval in seconds", "Sample Interval") ' Convert to milliseconds - needed for sleep statement below. SamplePeriod = SamplePeriod * 1000 'Initiates conversation with Windmill DDE Panel ddeChan = DDEInitiate("Windmill", "Data") 'Keeps conversation open until the required 'number of samples have been collected. While NoOfRows < NoOfSamples + 1 'Requests data from all channels and stores it in 'memory in an array called mydata. mydata = DDERequest(ddeChan, "AllChannels") 'Ignores any warning messages which would halt the macro On Error Resume Next 'Finds the lower & upper boundaries of array, 'to determine the number of columns needed to 'store the data. Lower = LBound(mydata, 1) Upper = UBound(mydata, 1) 'Inserts data from the array into a row of cells. For Column = Lower To Upper Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(NoOfRows, Column).Value = mydata(Column) Next Column 'Inserts the time into the next column Column = Upper + 1 Sheets("Sheet1").Cells(NoOfRows, Column).Value = Range("C1") 'Waits for the specified sample interval Sleep SamplePeriod 'Increments number of rows, so next set of samples 'is inserted in the next row down. NoOfRows = NoOfRows + 1 'Stops loop when required sets of samples collected. Wend DDETerminate (ddeChan) End Sub 'End of Macro -- Further Reading =============== For more on using Excel with Windmill see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * 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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