PTS DIY flow sensor

[49-1183904562]

Tony,

Thanks; Yes I am working on the averaging algorithm so that it will be adjustable to the end user through configuration settings. In this I can serve the low end PC much better (least common denominator) What makes me smile is the current public video is on Bruce's P133 Toshiba and it still is to fast if he turns up the sample rate with no averaging. I will be testing later tomorrow on a IBM P90 I think it will be ok also, but the limiting factor is the system clock as in the current state the sampling is split across all three channels.

Thanks again for all your help in this, next step is in reverse D to A so we can motor control


Should have next update to bruce tomarrow as the current wife wants to watch the Olympics and i'll have time to code.

Rick

[Tony]

Great stuff Rick.

Yes, user adjustable averaging is an excellent feature, for a variety of reasons.

Leaping ahead to motor control, that is another very good reason for minimizing any pressure measurement delay on the hardware side.
In fact, pressure sampling is now just about instantaneous in real time, so a closed loop controller in software should be pretty easy to tune and be very stable. We can discuss all this further in more detail later on.

I really like the way this is heading. Well done Rick !

[Phil]

[106-1194218389]

Will this software have an entry point to put in your test depression, orifice size etc. so you can set it for your individual flowbench? If you flow at 10" H2O will it have the ability to correct to 28" etc.?

John

[49-1183904562]

[color=#000000]John,

The application has extensive configuration setting and so you can tune your bench for not only your Orifice size but you location, I/E STD barometric pressure, average temperature etc. The current application that everyone is looking at is a featureless test application for the proof of concept, tuning and math formula verification only and is not what I would call a user ready package. The design process is as I see it happening will be as follows. FlowSoft Basic will come with the electronics package and in essence be a digital monometer with all the advanced configuration utilities need for both Orifice and Pito benches. From there we will be working on possibly two other versions FlowSoft Motor Sports and FlowSoft Pro these will be more feature rich applications for those that want features like job archiving, flow comparisons, graphing etc. (still working on a list of features and I will create a post later for suggestions). Finally it is my hope to work with Larry to provide interface support for his FP-Excel. The current electronics are set up to handle a depression of up to 40

[MrHijet]

(for the guys who wait for my motorola/atmel AVR digital solution: don't expect anything this year, as the project had to be frozen for a time to sort some other things.)

Daniel

[Moriniman]

My PIC based system is built and sitting on the bench next to this computer. It's connected to the Emulator and is just waiting for me to have a little time with the PIC C code.

[larrycavan]

[quote="1960FL"][color=#000000]John,

The application has extensive configuration setting and so you can tune your bench for not only your Orifice size but you location, I/E STD barometric pressure, average temperature etc. The current application that everyone is looking at is a featureless test application for the proof of concept, tuning and math formula verification only and is not what I would call a user ready package. The design process is as I see it happening will be as follows. FlowSoft Basic will come with the electronics package and in essence be a digital monometer with all the advanced configuration utilities need for both Orifice and Pito benches. From there we will be working on possibly two other versions FlowSoft Motor Sports and FlowSoft Pro these will be more feature rich applications for those that want features like job archiving, flow comparisons, graphing etc. (still working on a list of features and I will create a post later for suggestions). Finally it is my hope to work with Larry to provide interface support for his FP-Excel. The current electronics are set up to handle a depression of up to 40

[106-1194218389]

Rick,
Thanks for the explaination on the software. I really appreciate what you and the others are doing. One reason I love this forum is that there is so much team work to make everything work as inexpensively as possible and being concerned for people who may have less powerful resources in their computers. I do tech support all day long for Qwest in the internet and cable tv area. It is sad to see som many people shell out big dollars to be disappointed because their old computer will not even keep up with the internet.
Larry brings up a valid point about having what is most useful in the program to keep it user friendly. I have told many of my programmer friends "just because you can doesn't mean you should" :;): I really like the idea of being able to do reports and comparisons. I also love being able to organize my flow tests into certain groups. Some of the existing software will do that but is very complicated. I am really looking forward to this project. btw Larry, I have been following the discussions at SpeedTalk and find the motorcycle thread very interesting.

[49-1183904562]

[color=#000000]Larry

I could not agree with you more, in my current Basic application I am actually creating data export to a CSV instead of and excel sheet (though I may provide that option also) so that the least common denominator does not need to rely on Excel when a old copy of Lotus or Microsoft Works will do just fine for the basic data manipulation we do.

The upgraded apps will be more organized and business oriented, to me making software functional & intuitive is more important than flash and eye candy.

At this point my biggest question is should I capture to a screen table then export all data or just capture to file? If I capture to screen what is the max number of test points I should provide for the Basic app 7? 10? 12? 15? What kind of increments are people testing at? .025? .050? .100??? Max Lifts? 800? I do not want to bind anyone either.

As the screen shots of the

[bruce]

[Otto]

[quote="1960FL"][color=#000000] If I capture to screen what is the max number of test points I should provide for the Basic app 7? 10? 12? 15? What kind of increments are people testing at? .025? .050? .100??? Max Lifts? 800? I do not want to bind anyone either.

I am very interested in and open to all input here for the Basic package as I do not have all the answers and my time at a flow bench has allway

[Otto]

boy i hate when things go dead after i post any news????

[106-1194218389]

I know what you mean Otto :;): I know that most of my testing is done between .050" lift and .800" and I do mine every .050". Some people who are doing Pro Stock or stuff like that do like you do over an inch and every .025" - I would love to see the ability to input that in the program I am using. I would like to be able to control that part of the test parameter.

John

[49-1183904562]

Otto;

I did not mean to forget the post just very busy at work and trying to figure out how I will set up the program to allow for different user needs up to 50 test points. Yet not make it cumbersome for those that only test 10.

The team is currently working through some possible modifications to improve low flow testing sensitivity. Should have an update in a week or so.

Rick