Author Topic: Labjack  (Read 5011 times)

embayweather

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Labjack
« on: April 22, 2012, 11:09:17 PM »
As you may know if you have followed some of my ramblings I am building a different sort of weather station using professional sensors where possible, and a device called Labjack, in my case a U3. In essence this device measures voltage or a derivative, and turns it into a digital signal. Processed through DAQFactory it can create graphs and readouts and all sorts of weather type stuff. One or two things I am so far unable to create. Apart from a sunshine recorder (thinking of platinum resistance thermometer here somewhere though), low speed anemometer and barometer. if I could port these through from the Cat it would be brilliant  especially if 1-wire was available (hint!!!). The question I would like to ask is related to the app for reading data over the internet. Would I be able to sue the same sort of output that is created for that in my own weather station.


A bit off the normal track, but I wonder if I can give some more food for thought. Could it work in reverse? Could the Cat be programmed to use the digital output from Labjack and thus allow all sorts of instrumentation to access this great Mac weather program?

Mmmm, either I am a bit barmy for thinking such thoughts or its getting late here. The sort of computer is beyond my reach, but might it be possible??

Best wishes

Mike

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2012, 06:39:24 PM »

A bit off the normal track, but I wonder if I can give some more food for thought. Could it work in reverse? Could the Cat be programmed to use the digital output from Labjack and thus allow all sorts of instrumentation to access this great Mac weather program?

Best wishes

Mike

Certainly possible. A station driver would be needed - this bridges the hardware to WeatherCat. On one side is the connection to the hardware (USB in this case?) and on the other is the interface to WeatherCat (a bunch of channels) - this will be documented in a future version so if you are feeling particularly handy with XCode you could have a go at a driver sometime in the future  :)

Cheers,
Stu.

embayweather

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2012, 07:56:17 PM »
I know nothing about Xcode but I am wiling to learn. Any recommendations as to where to start?

Best wishes

Mike

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2012, 08:22:53 PM »
You'll probably need a 'tame' Cocoa developer Mike. I had a quick dig about and found an open source project which could act as the basis for the hardware interface code (assuming the license allows it and this is for the hardware you have) - http://computingconfidence.com/the-labjack-u3-linux-project. The interface to WeatherCat can come from the example driver I'll provide with the station SDK.

The plan is to release the plug-in SDK with version 1.1 and the station driver SDK with version 1.2

Cheers,
Stu.

embayweather

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2012, 09:10:49 PM »
Thanks for that it looks quite promising. Getting to the end of a veeeeery long day (mostly non functioning PCs), so I will check it out properly over the next day or two. It would be really neat if the Cat and my system could talk together, it would make for a great station for me.

Best wishes

Mike

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2012, 05:06:18 PM »
Quote
The plan is to release the plug-in SDK with version 1.1 and the station driver SDK with version 1.2

That got my attention. Do you intend for third-parties to extend WeatherCat's capabilities with plug-in's? I'd like know more about this. Is there a thread for this topic?

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SDK is "in drydock" for a refit (Re: Labjack)
« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2012, 05:41:53 PM »
Hi Grand and WeatherCat fans,

That got my attention. Do you intend for third-parties to extend WeatherCat's capabilities with plug-in's? I'd like know more about this. Is there a thread for this topic?

Actually you are using WeatherCat plug-ins and don't realize it.  I thought all station drivers were implemented as plug-ins and certainly the active banner generator is a plug-in.  Version 2.1 of WeatherCat's predecessor - LWC had all this.  In the metamorphosis into WeatherCat the plug-in architecture isn't complete.  I think the problem is that Stu is trapped with issues associated with the gap between Xcode 3 and Xcode 4.  That's why the old plug-in architecture isn't already working. 

However, of course only da' Boss knows for sure!

I'm waiting too to jump on the plug-in bandwagon, but I think you'll have find it much easier to do than me!  [banghead]

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

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Re: Labjack
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2012, 06:00:05 PM »
Yes, Edouard is correct - all station drivers are plug-ins as are the Live Data View, Banner Generator and Current Conditions Calculator tools.

Because we have to switch to XCode 4, I'm holding off releasing the SDK's until that's done (V1.1 onwards).

Cheers,
Stu.