-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 164 www.windmill.co.uk March 2012 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Thanks for subscribing to Monitor - we are pleased to offer you free data logging software to collect data from RS232, RS422, RS485, Modbus and TCP/IP devices. See below for how to choose the right settings for your instrument. If you find the software useful, please send us your set-up details to help other people get started. I hope enjoy the newsletter, but should you wish to remove yourself from our mailing please go to Monitor Newsletter CONTENTS ======== * Windmill Notes: How to Set Up Data Logging from Your Instrument * Excel Corner: Overlaying Google Earth with Data in Excel * DAQ News Round-up ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Windmill Notes: How to Set Up Data Logging from Your Instrument ________________________________________________________ We designed Windmill Software to be versatile enough to log data from many types of measurement instruments. This versatility, though, means that there are several set-up options that you may not need for your particular device. To help you choose the settings to use with your instrument, we have examples for a wide range of instruments from balances to oxygen meters. Among instruments covered are: A & D Balances, Adam PGW Balances, Datel Datatakers, Garmin GPS Receivers, Mettler Toledo Balances, Ohaus Pioneer Balances, Quadra-Chek 2000s, Sartorius Balances, Sylvac Dial Gauges, Turner Fluorometers and YSI Oxygen Meters. See the full list and get your settings at https://www.windmill.co.uk/serial_driver.html We need your help to expand this list. If you would be willing to share your settings to save time for someone else, please get in touch: e-mail monitor@windmillsoft.com. All we would need are - your *.imd file from your windmill setups directory - the iml.ini file from the c:\program files\windmill software\windmill\ directory - the make and model of your instrument It would also be useful to have an example of the data string which your instrument sends. ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Excel Corner: Overlaying Google Earth with Excel Data ________________________________________________________ "Do you know of a way to take Excel data and overlay it onto a Google Earth Image?" asked one of our readers. One way to do this is to create a "KML" file from your Excel data. KML is a file format used to display geographic data in applications such as Google Earth or Google Maps. It is a text file based on the XML standard. Before you can convert your Excel file to KML, you have to arrange your worksheet in a specific way. It should contain at least 3 columns: latitude, longitude and your data - for example depth. Change the title of the data column to Name.There are several utilities out there that will convert your file for you. I like Earth Point's offering at http://www.earthpoint.us/ExcelToKml.aspx. Some others are listed below. To use the Earth Point tool: - Look for the Choose File button on their web page, and browse to your Excel file. - Click "View on Google Earth". The Earth Point utility will save your file as a KML file. - Open Google Earth on your PC. - From Google Earth File menu, open the file you have just saved. Your data will be overlaid as labelled points.
Adding More Information ======================= You can add other columns to your spreadsheet, providing more details. For example, if you add a column titled "Description", whatever you type here will appear in Google Earth as a pop-up balloon. You can also show a moving track of data over time: more on this in our next issue. Getting Data into Excel ======================= The above is all very well, but how to get the data into Excel in the first place. With Windmill there are two ways to do this. 1. You can use Windmill Logger to collect data from a GPS receiver and measurement device, and then open the saved file in Excel. 2. You can send the data directly to Excel. More details are at https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/ To download a trial of Windmill to collect data, subscribe to Monitor. Further Reading: ================ KML Tutorial https://developers.google.com/kml/documentation/kml_tut Excel to KML Tools and Macros http://www.earthpoint.us/ExcelToKml.aspx http://www.i-programmer.info/projects/131-mapping-a-gis/ http://www.tchartdev.com/csv2kml.htm ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ DAQ News Round-up ________________________________________________________ Welcome to our round-up of the data acquisition and control news. If you would like to receive more timely DAQ news updates then either grab our RSS newsfeed at https://www.windmillsoft.com/monitor.xml or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#!/DataAcquisition Robotic jellyfish fuelled by hydrogen US engineers have invented a hydrogen-powered robot that moves through water like a jellyfish. Robojelly could eventually be used in underwater rescue operations. Being fuelled by hydrogen means, in theory, it will not run out of energy Source: BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/ New Centre for Carbon Measurement NPL launches the Centre for Carbon Measurement which will: develop the underpinning measurement science and technology to support carbon markets and accounting; provide access to the best measurement techniques for developers of low carbon technologies and improve the accuracy and consistency of climate data through improved ground-based and satellite measurement technology and better data analysis. Source: National Physical Laboratory http://www.npl.co.uk/news/new-centre-for-carbon-measurement Industrial networking market to grow The market for industrial networking is still strong according to a new report from IMS Research. An estimated 31 million new fieldbus and Ethernet nodes were installed worldwide in 2011; this number is forecast to grow by an average of 10% a year, to just over 45 million new connected nodes in 2015. Source: IMS Research http://imsresearch.com/press-release/Drives_Leading_Industrial_Networking_Growth ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ * 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/monitorindex.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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