-------------------------Monitor------------------------ The Newsletter for PC-Based Data Acquisition and Control Issue 63 www.windmill.co.uk October 2003 --------------------ISSN 1472-0221---------------------- Hello, and welcome to October's edition of Monitor. This month how to chart in Excel without leaving gaps. CONTENTS ======== * Excel Corner: Ignoring Empty Cells and Zeros when Charting * Data Acquisition and Control Exhibitions * Windmill News: Windmill Reduces Train Brake Testing Time by a Third ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ EXCEL CORNER: IGNORING EMPTY CELLS AND ZEROS WHEN CHARTING ________________________________________________________ To chart empty cells without leaving gaps, you need to ask Excel to plot the cells as interpolated. To do this: 1. Select your Chart 2. From the Tools menu select Options > Chart > Empty Cells Plotted as Interpolated. To ignore the zeros you could simply search for 0 (selecting to Find Entire Cells Only) and replace with an empty cell. Alternatively you could replace the 0 with =NA(). This produces #N/A - an error value that means "no value is available." Either way, the zeros will not now be plotted. For more tips on charting with Excel see https://www.windmill.co.uk/excel/excel-charting.html ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ WINDMILL NEWS: WINDMILL REDUCES TRAIN BRAKE TESTING TIME BY A THIRD ________________________________________________________ Travelling under the sea through the Channel Tunnel, the Eurostar connects the capital cities of France, England and Belgium. It has been described as the world's most advanced train, and Windmill Software are pleased to have supplied the Eurostar with a single-car brake testing system. And not only Eurostar, we have also recently delivered a multi-car brake testing system to Alstom Transport. This reduces the time taken to test the brakes from 36 to 12 hours. When the brakes are applied the Windmill system measures pressure waveforms, looking for delays and making sure the equipment reaches the correct pressure. The multi- car system uses eight single-car boxes communicating over RS485. It can control airbag pressure and adjust for the weight of the people in the train. The system is set up and run through customised Windmill software. The engineer selects from a menu of tests and chooses the thresholds on each measurement. He can use the software to access the train control system, switching various relays etc. The single-car Eurostar system uses our standard Streamer software. This collects data at up 100 000 samples per second and continually stores it to disk. At the end of the tests reports are automatically generated that provide a permanent record of the procedures and results. For more on the Streamer data collection software see https://www.windmill.co.uk/streamer.html For more on testing trains contact Windmill Software at sales@biodataltd.com ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ DATA ACQUISITION AND CONTROL EXHIBITIONS ________________________________________________________ Continuing our bi-monthly listing of exhibitions and conferences related to data acquisition and control. North West Manufacturing Exhibition 5-6 November Reebok Stadium Bolton UK The professional engineering solutions exhibition dedicated to manufacturing. http://www.industry.co.uk/event.asp?CONTSUPREF=NWEST2003 Scanautomatic 18-21 November The Swedish Exhibition Centre, Goteborg, Sweden Sweden's industrial sector apparently has lots of money to spend, and this is Sweden's only automation exhibition. http://www.swefair.se/scanautomatic/index.asp Web Seminar - Wireless Networking of Sensors & Instrumentation: Applications and Techniques 6 November 2003 Seminar conducted over the internet.$195 per site per seminar for ISA members, $225 for non-members. https://www.isa.org/ MERA 3-6 November Krasnaya Presnya Moscow Russia 10th international fair for measurement, control and automation technology. http://www.msi-fairs.com/merover.htm Metrology November 4-6, 2003 Eilat, Israel Trends and Applications in Calibration and Testing Laboratories http://www.isas.co.il/metrology2003/ NOx Emissions & Source Monitoring Technical Conference 11 November 2003 Trump Plaza Atlantic City NJ USA Industry experts discuss measurement and control of low level NOx emissions, new concepts for NOx reduction techniques and innovative monitoring systems. https://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Events&template=/Conference/ Inspex 11-13 November NEC Birmingham UK Show dedicated to metrology, testing, inspection equipment and quality management. http://www.teamshow.co.uk/metrology/index.cfm Pollutec 2-5 December Includes analysis, measurement and monitoring of air, water and soils. Paris-Nord Villepinte France http://www.pollutec.com/index_en.htm mtec 2004 Birmingham 11-Feb-04 to 12-Feb-04 Addresses all aspects of sensor, measurement and instrumentation technology. http://www.mtec-info.co.uk/ ________________________________________________________ * 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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