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Text File | 1994-10-21 | 13.4 KB | 345 lines

########################################################################### !ADCLogger By Julyan Bristow Version 1.20 ########################################################################### 1.0 Introduction and Overview This is an application to allow data to be displayed on the screen and logged to a file using an Archimdes fitted with an analogue to digital conversion input port. The program operates on the desktop and is fully multi tasking. For this particular application's development, the Acorn I/O Podule (Part No AKA 10) was used. However, it uses legal os_byte calls, and should therefore support any other devices that use the same calls. ########################################################################### 2.0 Starting the Program Load the program in the normal way by double-clicking on the icon in the filer window. The application will install itself on the iconbar. The application loads a default configuration file on start up. If this file is not present, or fails to load, warning messages are given and a bare minimum configuration is created. This file is called 'config' and is placed in the !ADCLogger directory. Should you wish to alter the location of the default configuration file, alter the following: Edit the Messages file. Alter the text after 'defcon:' from <ADCLogger$Dir>.Config to the full path of your config file. If you are using !Edit, you can SHIFT-DRAG the file and the path will be automatically inserted. Clicking 'menu' over the icon will give a menu with three options as follows: Info Program version, author etc Config Clicking on this will allow for configuration of the displayed and logged channels Quit Clicking on this will Quit the program. If logging is in progress, a confirmation to quit will be required. Clicking with 'select' will display the analogue port display dialogue box. I use !NewLook as supplied by Acorn for RISC OS 3.1. I have checked the program without the !NewLook icons and some of it looks a bit naff. Sorry, I am not going to alter it for those without RISC OS 3.1. ########################################################################### 3.0 Configuration This dialogue box is obtained by selecting the 'config' option from the iconbar menu. This opens a large dialogue box which allows for two main operations: (i) giving names and units for the analogue channels, and allowing for conversion of read voltage to 'real' units and (ii) setting up of the logging parameters eg the frequency and duration of the log. For the fields where a user input is required, use the TAB key, or the up and down cursor keys or the mouse th move to the desired field. 3.1 Channel Configuration 3.1.1 Analogue Channels There are 4 of these available on the Acorn I/O podule. The program allows any of the 4 to be used as desired by the user. In order to activate a chosen channel, click on the radio icon next to the channel to be used. This enables the channel to be toggled on or off. If the channel is active, the name and unit of the channel can be entered in the appropriate box. Two further inputs are possible for each channel - Units/Volt and Zero value. These allow for converting voltages from sensors to real units. This applies a linear conversion, so any linear response sensor (ie one which uses a conversion of the form y=mx+c (where y = real units, x = measured voltage, m = constant gradient and c = zero offset) can be applied. For example, if using an LM35 temperature sensor, its output is 0 volts at 0 Deg C and 1 volt at 100 Deg C. Thus Units/Volt = 100.0 and Zero value = 0.0. If the dialogue box is to display voltages, the Units/Volt should be 1.0 and Zero value 0.0. 3.1.2 Button Channels There are two button channels available on the Acorn I/O podule. As with the analogue channels, either of them may be selected for display with the radio icon. If selected, a name for the button channel may be entered. The buttons are displayed as either 1 or 0 for on or off. The button channels are not saved to the file. 3.2 Display and Logging of Channels If any of the ADC channels or buttons are selected or deslected, they are seen immediately in the analogue port display dialogue box (see below). However, if a channel is to be logged to disc, only those channels selected at the time of starting the logging are recorded. Ie if a log has already been started, selecting or removing channels from the display window will have no effect on the channels being recorded. 3.3 Reference Voltage There is a field available for setting of the reference voltage as used on the Acorn I/O podule. This is not very stable on the board and can drift with time. This field allows the user to set the value of the reference voltage to that of their particular board. It is also possible for the ADC chip used on the I/O podule to have a reference voltage applied to it of upto 2.5 Volts (ref - RS cataloge), and so some users may have applied thier own reference voltage different to that on the podule. This allows for this eventuality. The application converts the input to a voltage as follows: voltage = (read ADC steps / 65536) * reference voltage 3.4 Setting Logging and Display Timings 3.4.1 Timing of Updates This application is fully multi tasking. Ie it polls the WIMP and claims NULL events. On each NULL event it compares the time at that instant with the time of the previous event. If that is equal to or greater than the required interval, then a measurement is logged to disk or the screen updated. For most of the time therefore, the data will be logged/displayed at the correct frequency. However, at times there can be great demand on processor time (eg formatting disks, complex rendering operations etc) and so the data could be recorded at a greater interval than that required. As the logging is controlled by software, then there is nothing that can be done about this I'm afraid. 3.4.2 Display Update Interval The values read from the active channels are updated on the screen at an interval defined by the user. This may be from 1 second upwards. Use the up arrow to increase the time and the down arrow to decrease. 3.4.2.1 Logging Interval The logging interval may be selected in seconds, minutes or hours by clicking on the appropriate radio icon. When selecting a different unit of interval, the time interval is converted to the appropriate unit. For example if the logging interval is set to 60 seconds, and then the minute interval selected, the displayed interval will be 1 minute, similarly if an interval of 1 hour has been selected, and then the seconds interval chosen, 3600 seconds will be displayed. Each individual time interval may be set independantly and there is no maximum limit ie 120 seconds can be set as can 2 minutes. Once logging has started, these times cannot be altered. 3.4.2.2 Logging Duration The duration may be defined in 4 ways: (i) as the number of values to be collected, or (ii) the time for which logging is to take place over, for example there may be 600 values recorded at a frequency of 15 seconds, or readings every 15 seconds can be taken over a time of 10 minutes (giving 10*60/15=40 readings) etc. Once logging has started, the duration cannot be altered. 3.5 Update of of Data Clicking on this icon will update the application with the names, units and conversions for each ADC channel and the button information. Timing information is always up to date. 3.6 Canceling Changes to Channel Descriptions Clicking on this icon will close the dialogue box and not update the ADC channel and button information. Timing information is always up to date. 3.7 Saving of Configuration File Clicking on this icon will open a small save dialogue box. Drag the file icon to the desired destination, or type in the full pathname required. The default path is the !ADCLogger directory (via the system variable <ADCLogger$Dir>, so if desired only RETURN need be pressed. The default filename of <ADCLogger$Dir>.config is that of the configuration file needed for the main application on start up. 3.8 Loading Alternative Configuration Files Alternative configuration files may be loaded by dragging the config files icon onto the config dialogue box. Confirmation is required from the user prior to the actual loading of the new config file. Note - the current version does not test the loaded file for being a config file - so don't load any old file. This is to be corrected at a later version. ############################################################################ 4 ADC Dialogue Box This dialogue box is obtained by clicking 'select' over the iconbar icon. 4.1 Display This dialogue box displays values from all active channels and updates the values at the time interval defined in the config dialogue box. Displayed for each analogue channel is its name, the voltage input, the conversion to real units and its units. For the button channels, only the status (ie 1 or 0) is shown. Should the user add or delete the channels to be displayed from the config dialogue box whilst the ADC dialogue box is open, then this will be reflected in the ADC dialogue box the next time it is to be updated. 4.2 Logging Data 4.2.1 Preparation Before logging can commence, it is necessary to create the file for the data to be written to. Clicking on the 'Prepare Logging' icon will open a small save dialogue box. Drag the file icon to the desired destination, or type in the full pathname required. The file created is of type CSV (Comma Seperated Variable) and can be directly imported into a number of packages for further analysis or plotting. It would appear that CSV filetypes are not given an icon as standard under RISC OS 3.1, so a standard CSV file icon is included in the !Sprites file for RISC OS 2 users. I have tested it with !Eureka and !GraphPro. 4.2.2 Starting Logging To start logging data click on the 'Start Logging' icon. From this moment onwards, it is not possible to alter the logging frequency or duration, or the channels to be logged, so these must be previously set. Whilst logging is in progress, a field is available to show the percentage completed. 4.2.3 Canceling Logging At any time the logging may be terminated by clicking on the 'Cancel Logging' icon. There is no Confirmation of this action. ########################################################################### Known Problems 1 At high logging speeds (eg 1/sec) or with a lot of processor activity there can be timing errors. 2 Have encountered problems with timing of the logging. ########################################################################### Future Enhancements 1 Other suppliers analogue devices supported 2 Graphical display of input data 3 Averaging of ADC data to reduce noise 4 Add interactive help routines - important to reduce the size of this help file! Please send reports of any bugs/errors/suggestions for future versions. Information on other io devices gratefully received. ########################################################################### Version History Version 1.00 First release. Version 1.10 Configuration dialogue box added Version 1.11 Used JOBLib functions, tidied up code a bit Version 1.20 Added logging to file Version 1.22 Current Version - minor tweeks etc here and there ########################################################################### Bugs Please report any bugs/omissions for correction in any subsequent versions to the author at the address below. This program was written an an A440/1 with RISC OS 3.10 and an ARM 3. It should work on RISC OS 2 (eg no RO3 only calls have been used) but if not please let me know. ################################################################# Warranty / Liability The author makes no guarantee of the operation of this program. It has been written and tested to the best of the authors ability, but it has not been possible to test it in every possible manner that any end user may put it to. In addition, it is the users responsibility to ensure that any interfacing to the computer does not or cannot cause any damage to the computer. ************************************************************ ** IE THIS PROGRAM WILL ONLY READ FROM, OR WRITE TO, YOUR ** ** INTERFACING HARDWARE ** ************************************************************ ################################################################# Author Julyan Bristow 40, Dunard Road Shirley SOLIHULL B90 2HR ################################################################# Copyright This program was written by the above author, and has been released into the Public Domain. This means that anyone can copy the program freely and distribute as wished. However, you must include all the files listed below and not alter any of the files in any way. IE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE The files in this application are as follows: !Boot !Run !RunImage The application executable file. !Sprites The application sprites. Messages Application messages. ReadMe This file. Sprites The resource sprite file. Templates The window templates. Config The default configuration file.