Data Logging from an Alltrax controller

[cptaylor]

What are you going to log? Voltage and current over time? Hundreds of cheap, portable loggers with multichannel input that record data for extraction at a later date via laptop. Eve temperature via thermocouples. Speed, etc. Some are small enough to fit in your pocket...depending....

I built my own for work that can record voltage in intervals I specify, like once a second or once every 10 seconds, temperature. I also had rpms to chart with voltage and temp but that.....Well, that depends on sensor like pick up. I wound up using a magnet and used a hall effect....blah, blah, blah....

[wesleycox]

Google Raspberry Pi. you would have to write the software though...

[cbryan88]

Originally Posted by Bill

The problem I see is that the software requires user interface to manually start/stop the data logging.

It would be nice for them to come up with an android compatible version of their software.

Amen brother...read the thread on my saga! I am tempted to start a crowd funding drive to move Alltrax Apps into this millennia, lol

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by cptaylor

What are you going to log? Voltage and current over time? Hundreds of cheap, portable loggers with multichannel input that record data for extraction at a later date via laptop. Eve temperature via thermocouples. Speed, etc. Some are small enough to fit in your pocket...depending....

I built my own for work that can record voltage in intervals I specify, like once a second or once every 10 seconds, temperature. I also had rpms to chart with voltage and temp but that.....Well, that depends on sensor like pick up. I wound up using a magnet and used a hall effect....blah, blah, blah....

Alltrax's Controller Pro program has a monitor function (see attached) that produces a CSV file that is stored on the computer running the program.

For starters, I'm basically looking for a smaller, (IE: more convenient to carry and secure on or in cart) equivalent of a laptop to run the program and store the CSV file it produces.

My sepex motor has a speed sensor installed, but unused, that produces 8 pulses per armature revolution, so my plan is to run a tachometer with it.
I have a thermocouple attached to the motor case and monitor motor temperature with a DMM.
I have a 500A ammeter & shunt to monitor amp flow at various locations.

For the time being, real time information of battery volts and amps and motor RPM and temperature is sufficient, but I may look into recording it at some future date.

[eflyguy]

Wouldn't it be great if Alltrax made a panel meter that displayed all that?
..a

[TerryH]

Not sure if it would work but Zilla recommends a Palm Pilot for there data recording.

[yurtle]

Anything that will run Alltrax' software would work. Next time I see my neighbor, I'll ask him what he thinks the time investment and hardware cost would be to build a small HMI that runs a version of Windows. The only real coding required would be a start, stop, and download the data file to a USB stick. At work, we have a lot of HMIs that are probably 4" x 6" touchscreen, or that have 4 to 6 programmable buttons. Hardware would probably run a couple of hundred bucks, but programming and testing is an unknown.

It's probably more than I'd want to spend, but if we build a prototype and there's interest, maybe we could split up the programming cost. Hardware would be the same, and we'd all need to agree on the HMI and firmware, for compatibility of the programming.

[cptaylor]

Originally Posted by JohnnieB

Alltrax's Controller Pro program has a monitor function (see attached) that produces a CSV file that is stored on the computer running the program.

For starters, I'm basically looking for a smaller, (IE: more convenient to carry and secure on or in cart) equivalent of a laptop to run the program and store the CSV file it produces.

My sepex motor has a speed sensor installed, but unused, that produces 8 pulses per armature revolution, so my plan is to run a tachometer with it.
I have a thermocouple attached to the motor case and monitor motor temperature with a DMM.
I have a 500A ammeter & shunt to monitor amp flow at various locations.

For the time being, real time information of battery volts and amps and motor RPM and temperature is sufficient, but I may look into recording it at some future date.

ok, I see. Then no need to reinvent the wheel. It already does most of it, or it seems, you just want something smaller than a laptop.

The software was written for Windows so it will need that OS to run.

What I would be looking for in your case is one of those older, micro laptops that can run XP. They had them many years ago, they were very small, very limited computers that could fit in your pocket....literally. Had RS232 port and USB. They should be very inexpensive now for a used one.

Not very good at doing serious work on but if you could find one cheap enough, it would be a great data logger and cheaper than a real data logger.

[yurtle]

I forgot about those! That would probably be the best solution. Wouldn't even need a serial port, as long as it had USB.

Betcha can find a used one on eBay for next to nothing, as everyone I knew who bought one, quickly got frustrated with size, and bought something bigger.

[yurtle]

You might want a serial port if you also want to data-log temperature, and I played with using a microphone port to input audio frequency into Microsoft Sound Recorder, then play with the waveforms in CoolEdit, for a crude frequency analyser. Pulses from your speed sensor might work, but would require post-processing.