ADC 212 Data Freezing

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Michael Hayes
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ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by Michael Hayes »

I have an ADC 212 monitoring kW (0-10V) on one Channel and Current (4-20mA into 100E) on the other channel. I then have a (Picotech) Parallel to USB converter to a Toshiba M5 and set it to record for 200 Hours (@ 5sec sampling) under Picolog. I noticed after about 90 Min the input channels froze and although the logging was continuing, the values were not changing. I re-started and found the same problem after about an hour. I then re-started and a check this morning reveled consistent behaviour.
The units are in a switchboard with reasonably high magnetic fields and I am not sure if this is a problem for the notebook or not. A quick search revealed a similar problem from MarkV in this forum posted on Dec 7 2009 and attributed an open graph window as a possible problem. I thought of this yesterday but without the Graph window, it is hard to keep an eye on the operation. I don't know the version of software but I will return to site and install the latest software as well as leaving the graph window closed.
Has anyone elese had similar problems or have an alternate cause or solution?
Michael Hayes

ziko
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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by ziko »

Hi,

What version of the software are you using? (Help ->About)

Also could you send me your settings file please?

Kind regards
Ziko

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Michael Hayes
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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by Michael Hayes »

Hi Ziko,
I have just written a detailed reply using the link in the email notification. When I went to post, I had to enter two words and after I did, my reply was dumped and I was sent back to a login screen so here goes again.

The original version was about 5.18 or so. I updated to 5.21.2 and tried again but the situation only marginally improved.
Previously, It recorded for about an hour or so but then the readings froze and a flat line was trended. Now I found that after a little less than 5 hours, the unit simply stopped logging altogether. I am sending a file recorded under the old version as well as one I started recording last Friday with Version 5.21.2 showing where it stopped. Also attached is a set of screen shots of the set up phase in case I lost them.
I am not sure how to extract this information from a .plw file. I originally saved a .pls file but I have never found a use for these files as the settings seem to be contained within the .plw file and the setup changed slightly from the saved .pls file.
I have never tried to record for extended periods before using Picolog. In the past, I have recorded for 7 days or so but I used a DDE transfer to read the inputs directly into Excel where I saved the information and graphed it. This was using a USB TC-08 but it would seem that the problem I am experiencing is spread across a number of products and I would suspect the PLW32.exe may be the problem.

I have been using the products for more than 10 years but mostly using the oscilloscope version which has largely been without issue.
Any ideas on how to rectify the problem would be appreciated.

Regards,
Michael
Attachments
Pico Setup.doc
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Latest Version.PLW
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Older Version.PLW
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ziko
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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by ziko »

Hi,

I am about to recreate your configuration, but in order to be through I need to know what operating system you are using and specifically which ADC212 have you got? This should be labelled at the bottom or you can find in PicoScope 5 under help->about.

Kind regards
Ziko

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Michael Hayes
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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by Michael Hayes »

Hi Ziko,
The Pico unit is an ADC 212/3 *DFY93/047*
The PC is a Toshiba M5 running Windows XP Professional with SP2 on an Intel CPU at 2 GHz with 1G of RAM
Regards,
Michael

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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by ziko »

Hi Michael,

I have been running your setup on a Windows XP machine that has a 2.0GHz Celeron and 736MB of RAM for nearly 24 hours and it seems to have no problems.

Do you have any power saving options selected or are there any programs like firewalls that could be causing a disturbance?

Kind regards
Ziko

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Michael Hayes
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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by Michael Hayes »

Ziko,
As I knew the logging would be for a week, I changed the laptop settings to never power disks down or go to sleep etc, or even do anything when I closed the lid. I have had hibernate disabled for more than 10 years when it was originally flawed. My processor is a Centrino but I wouldn't expect that to be a problem. It is a work machine so I can't coment on firewalls etc but I can say that I have previously used similar machines to monitor USB TC-08's for a week or more without trouble.
I might set it up at home over the weekend with another ADC if I can find one and see if that also exhibits the same problem. If it also fails, I will try monitoring a TC-08 with and without the graph and then I am out of ideas and would appreciate any further suggestions you might have on revealing the underlying cause.
Regards,
Michael

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Re: ADC 212 Data Freezing

Post by ziko »

Hi Michael,

I have been running the test on that computer for 114 hours now and it seems to be running fine, I would be interested in seeing how your other test at home runs. Also you might consider using a powered hub for your laptop.

Kind regards
Ziko

Technical Specialist

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