Subscribers to our Monitor newsletter can now download a free trial of Windmill 7. To licence your trial copy of Windmill please enter your Request key when you checkout.
Note: if you have been using Windmill 4.3 with LabIML, instead choose to buy a new copy of Windmill 7 + COMIML.
A licenced copy of Windmill lets you control up to 10 instruments which are sending binary, ASCII or hexadecimal data. You can collect many channels of data from each instrument. It includes the charting, logging, output control and DDE programs. You can also send data in real-time to other programs like Excel or Access.
Features
- Connect up to 10 devices
- Log data: temperature, strain, pressure, position, voltage, current, flow, humidity, rainfall, concentration, weight, etc
- Each reading time-stamped
- Chart data in real-time
- Switch digital outputs
- Control analogue outputs
- Alarm indication on all inputs
- Data saved in text files - eg in csv format.
- Route data into Excel, or other Windows software, in real-time
- Add optional extras as the need arises: process mimics, alarm alerts by telephone, sequence control, etc
- Easy-to-use: no programming required
- Free technical support for life by e-mail, fax or telephone
- Choose the logging rate: anything between once every 24 hours to 5 samples per second per channel.
- Can log 200 samples per second from 40 or more channels
- For instruments sending messages in ASCII, binary or hexadecimal
- Troubleshoot serial communications: see all bytes sent and received, even non-printing characters like carriage returns
- See the state of the com port input and output lines
- Money-back guarantee if not satisfied
- For Windows 8, 7 64-bit and 32-biit, Vista, XP and 98
Truly Modular
Each Windmill program concentrates on doing a single job and you simply run as many programs as you need. You can run several copies of each program, which means there are no fixed limits to the size of a Windmill system. You can also add other drivers, for example to collect data from USB instruments.
The Windmill Chart and Logger programs
What sort of Instruments can you Read with Windmill and COMIML?
You can control both those serial devices that continuously output messages, and those that require commands before supplying data. With a flexible approach to building command strings, and parsing the received data strings to extract data values, the majority instruments are supported. These include altimeters, balances, conductivity meters, data loggers, dial guages, digital indicators, digital thermometers, DMR, extensometers, fluorometers, force gauges, gas analysers, GPS, gyro compasses, hygrometers, I2C devices, ion gauges, load meters, motion sensors, multimeters, myographs, oxygen electrodes, particle analysers, pH meters, PIC microcontrollers, plcs, pressure transmitters, power analysers, RFID readers, thermoregulators, titrators, solar panel array controllers, sonar and water baths.
You have the freedom to mix and match equipment from many different manufacturers in many combinations. For example, serial devices from A&D, Anton Paar, Ashtec, Bruël & Kjær, Dataq Instruments, Datel, Datataker, Denver, Desoutter, Ecom, Edge Tech, Electro Industries, Fisher, Furuno, Garmin, Horiba, Mettler Toledo, Microchip Technology, Motorola, Molyteck, Newmar, Nu-Metrics, Omnistar, Omron, Orion, Parallax, Paroscientific, Patton, Phytron, Quantum Logic, Quest Scientific, Sartorius, Siemens, Telegan, Telemecanique, Texas Instruments, Transcell and Turner Designs have all been handled by Windmill. Many channels of data can be accepted from each instrument.
Troubleshoot Serial Communications
Also included is the ComDebug software which lets you troubleshoot serial communications. It handles messages in both binary and ASCII formats. You can see all bytes sent and received, even non-printing characters like carriage returns. This is crucial when dealing with binary data. ComDebug can send 16-bit 2s complement integers, unsigned integers, single bits of data, floating point etc.
Customer Comments
Some of these comments are about an earlier version of the software
"This seems like the best, most versatile, and professional data acquisition/processing suite I have seen."
FK, Chalmers University of Technology
"I needed a software program that can automatically send the appropriate commands to the OBDII device; interpret the response and make it available through Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). Searching around the internet I found Windmill...This program is perfect – it can request specific data through the OBDII interface and serve the data readings onto Excel."
RK, Mechanical Engineer, US NAVY Department
"...resulting in a 90% improvement in efficiency in an inspection data logging operation"
RB, Manufacturing & Development Engineer, Fiber Optic Transceiver Manufacturing
"...I just finished settting up our Turner SCUFA Fluorometer with Windmill. Great software. It was very easy, Thanks!"
GL, University of the Pacific
"...I am using the software to log a EZ compass (tilt, roll and heading). Works great and saved me alot of programming."
KV, Physics Professor
"The Windmill software was a great find for me. I had feared that I would have to write my own software as I could not find a flexible program that could accept custom-made drivers."
JC, Program Manager of a pilot scale chemical process facility supporting development of new products and processes
