-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 101 www.windmill.co.uk December 2006 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Welcome to the last Monitor of the year - we hope you find it useful. If you have any suggestions for the newsletter please e-mail the Editor. Should you wish to cancel your subscription you can do so at https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsletter.html CONTENTS ======== * Windmill News: Windmill Launch USB Box to Measure Strain * Excel Corner: Recovering Data from Damaged Worksheets * DAQ News Roundup ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Launch USB Box to Measure Strain ________________________________________________________ Windmill are pleased to announce their new all-in-one 751 SBox. This lets your PC monitor four strain gauges. It connects to the PC over a USB cable and comes with the Windmill data acquisition and control software suite. The SBox has been designed to be really easy to set up. You can quickly connect or disconnect your strain gauges. Putting everything in just one box means that it is ideal for mobile applications or for moving from place to place. When the Windmill software takes a reading from a strain gauge bridge, it automatically monitors excitation voltage and calculate the measurement in microstrain. This eliminates errors due to changes in excitation voltage. You can also set a zero reference level and monitor changes relative to that level. An integrating analogue-to-digital converter reduces noise and the system automatically recalibrates itself. The 751 SBox accepts four easily-connected bridges in quarter or half bridge configuration. The modular Windmill software offers data logging, charting, alarm indication and output control. Data can also be exported in real-time to other applications like Excel. The 751 SBox costs 930 GBP (1375 Euros or 1815 USD). For more information on this or other Windmill products e-mail sales@biodataltd.com For tips on computerised strain measurement see https://www.windmill.co.uk/strain-measurement.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Recovering Data from Damaged Worksheets ________________________________________________________ What to do when a system crash, virus attack or other nasty corrupts your Excel spreadsheet? Don't panic. The majority of your data will still be there, all you have to do is retrieve it. Here are eight suggestions to try to get back your data. 1. Switch off your PC and then restart. (Simple but often fixes problems.) 2. Run Scandisk to check for file system errors and bad sectors on your hard disk. Close all programs then from the Windows start menu select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scandisk. If you can't find it there then open My Computer, right- click the hard drive and select Properties. Go to Tools and run the Error Checking option. 3. If you can open the file in Excel, do so then save it in HTML or SYLK format. Choose to save the entire workbook. Close the file then re-open it and save it under a different name in Excel format again. 4. In Excel 2003, Use the Open and Repair Command - see below for details. 5. Open the file in Word. Select the resulting table, then copy and paste the table into Excel. Formulas will be lost but the data will be there. 6. Use External References to link to the file - see below for details. 7. Extract Data from a Chart - see below for details. 8. Use a commercial Excel Recovery program - see below for details. * In Excel 2003, Using the Open and Repair Command ============================================== 1. On the File menu, click Open. 2. In the Open dialog box, select your damaged file. 3. Click the arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair. 4. When you are prompted, click Repair to try to recover your most recent changes. If Excel cannot repair your workbook, click Extract Data instead of Repair. 5. If your workbook contains formulas, Excel prompts you to select either Convert to Values or Recover Formulas. 6. If you receive the following error message, click Yes. "The document file name caused a serious error the last time it was opened. Would you like to continue opening it?" 7. Save your recovered workbook. * Using External References to Link to the File =========================================== 1. On the File menu, click Open. Browse from the current folder to the folder that contains the damaged file, and click Cancel. 2. Click New on the File menu. Click Workbook then OK. 3. Type =File Name!A1 in cell A1 of the new workbook, where File Name is the name of the damaged workbook. If the Select Sheet dialog box appears, select the appropriate sheet and click OK. 4. Select cell A1 and on the Edit menu click Copy. Select an area that is slightly larger than the range of cells that contain data in the damaged file, then click Paste on the Edit menu. 5. Select the range of cells again, click Copy on the Edit menu. 6. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special. Select Values and click OK. This removes the links to the damaged file and leaves only the data. * Extract Data from a Chart ========================= Microsoft provides a macro to retrieve data from a chart even when the data is in an external worksheet or workbook. When the source data to a chart is lost, the data might still be retrieved from the chart itself. Excel 2002, 2003 see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300643/ Excel 2000 see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/213814/ Excel 98 and earlier see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137016/EN-US/ * Use a Commercial Excel Recovery program ======================================= If you are unable to retrieve your data yourself, there are recovery programs out there to help you. Recovery for Excel from OfficeRecovery.com, $149.00 US. Demo version available. Doesn't recover Visual Basic modules, drawings or cell names. http://www.officerecovery.com/excel/index.htm Excel Fix from cimaware, 80 GBP Demo version available. Doesn't recover password protected files, visual basic and macros, array formulas or pivot tables. http://www.excelfix.com R-Excel from r-tools technology, $78.99 US Demo version available. http://www.excel-recovery.net/ Kernel Excel Recovery from Nucleus Data Recovery, $49 US. Demo version available. http://www.excelfilerecovery.com/ ExcelRestore from PC Recovery, $145 US http://www.pcrecovery.com/ * Further Reading =============== For more tips on using Excel for data acquisition and analysis see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ DAQ News Roundup ________________________________________________________ Welcome to our roundup of the latest data acquisition and control news. If you would like to receive more timely DAQ news updates then grab our RSS newsfeed at https://www.windmillsoft.com/monitor.xml. Read https://www.windmill.co.uk/newsfeed.php for notes on how to display the news on your own web site, read it via e-mail or through a newsfeed viewer. Scientists find safer ways to detect uranium Queensland University of Technology scientists have found a safer way of detecting radioative contamination in the ground. Using a technique known as near infrared spectroscopy, radioactive minerals can be detected by scientists far away from a contaminated site. The technique uses a light source to scan the surface of a material to identify the chemical properties of that surface. In doing so, it is possible to safely determine whether or not radioactive uranium minerals are present in the ground. Source: Queensland University of Technology http://www.sci.qut.edu.au/ Regulatory Compliance Drives Growth of LIMS There are an increasing number of regulatory demands placed on analytical laboratories in all industries. These demands will drive the growth of Laboratory Information Management Systems by 5.3 percent, according to a new report from the ARC Advisory Group. Source: ARC Advisory Group http://www.arcweb.com/ UK's First Weblab Goes Live The UK's first 'weblab', which allows people anywhere to control a live experiment remotely through a computer, has been launched at the University of Cambridge. Internet users will be able to log on and control a simple experiment in a reactor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, altering the variables so that the machine produces different results. The entire process can be watched live on a webcam. The weblab consists of a reactor, auxiliary equipment and industrial process control devices and software. Source: University of Cambridge http://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/ Honeywell Introduces New Magnetic Sensor/Amplifier Honeywell has developed a new magnetic hybrid sensor/amplifier that it claims will simplify design and improve the performance of small portable products such as compass watches, personal Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, and wireless telephones. The HMC6042 Magnetic Sensor Plus incorporates small sensors and signal processors that convert magnetic field strengths into a differential output voltage. Source: Honeywell http://tinyurl.com/y4d9m7 NASA Climate Data on Google Earth NASA's climatologists have an enormous problem: when it comes to data on the atmosphere, they have too much of it. Now it has hit on a simple way to make that data accessible: software that superimposes it on the global 3D maps provided by Google Earth. The new system, called iEarth, will be available for anyone to use in April, NASA says. Source: New Scientist http://environment.newscientist.com/ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * 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/ Do you have a question, comment or suggestion on this newsletter? 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21 December 2006
