User manual

Another method of identifying the port includes trial and error
as follows: Select a port, then go to the "Capture" option,
sub-option "Display Current Input", and wait about 30 sec-
onds or so. If you have selected the correct port, you should
hear the computer’s speaker click or beep each time the RM-
60 detects ionizing radiation. This should occur randomly
about 12 times a minute. If you do not hear the beep, try
another port selection.
Following is a further discussion of LPT ports.
LPT 1 port is usually the printer port found on the computer’s
display adapter card. Its address is normally 3bc (hex) and its
interrupt request number is normally IRQ 7.
Some display adapter cards do not have a printer port. Rath-
er, the printer port is found on a separate card. In this case,
the printer port card normally allows the user to choose an
address and interrupt number by way of dip switches or
jumpers. In such a case LPT 1 normally has an address of
378 (hex) and uses interrupt request IRQ 7. A second LPT
port normally uses the address 278 (hex) and interrupt request
IRQ 5.
Each port has the possibility of using one of two interrupts,
depending on how the port card dip switches are set. If your
port selection does not operate, try the other interrupt number
for the port address, or check the port adapter card to make
sure that the proper address and interrupt number have been
enabled.
As stated above, the standard port choices are displayed by
Setup’s "Input Port" option. If you are working with a non-
standard port address, there is included a choice that allows
the use of any port address desired with any IRQ # between
2 and 15. A pop-up window will display a list of IRQ num-
bers currently masked off. (IRQ 2 is used by many serial
mouse cards. IRQ 2 is often masked on and therefore will not
show up in the pop-up window, even without a mouse in-
stalled, but the default interrupt routine might contain nothing
but an IRET, in which case it would be OK to go ahead and
use IRQ #2 if your card can make use of it, unless you’re
using AT IRQs 8 to 15).
When using either the LPT port or the COM port, the pro-
gram checks the port once per Time Base Unit (see below) to
see if the external device is active (for example fan activated,
etc.) by testing the appropriate port connections (see "Moni-
toring External Devices" above). The device must be activat-
ed at the end of each Time Base Unit for the program to rec-
ord the device as active during that particular TBU.
SCROLLING BAR CHART / STRIP CHART FEATURES:
Raw radiation data from a previously saved radiation data file
can be extracted and displayed for easy viewing of radiation
levels and to spot radiation peaks, trends, etc. The data is
displayed in scrolling strip chart format and/or bar chart
format.
DEMO FILE:
A raw radiation data file ("RAWDATA.RAD") is included on
the disk as a demo. RAWDATA.RAD contains background
radiation data gathered in southeastern Pennsylvania using an
RM-60.
A few descriptions of program operation follow. By loading
Aw-srad with the demo file, you can try out the descriptions.
The demo file can be loaded by typing "AW-SRAD RAW-
DATA.RAD" at the DOS command prompt.
Aw-srad will scan through the file and then display a list of
summary data, including the date and time of the last occur-
rence of the highest and lowest radiation level, any messages
contained in the header of the file, period of the file, etc. To
aid in keeping a record of summaries, you can append the
summary data to a text file of your choice. There is also a
selection to edit the text file (or any other file) using your
favorite text editor. The rawdata file is held open by Aw-srad
for your return from the editor. If you "Disk Write All Set-
tings" from the Misc. or Setup menu, after you enter the name
of the text file and the path of your favorite text editor, the
program will save the names and offer them as defaults next
time.
Place the bar on the selection "Strip/Bar Chart" and press
<Enter>. By pushing the left arrow key, the data is scrolled
in from right to left. Every bar/point that appears is accom-
panied by a listing of its microroentgens/hr. rate in the right
hand column.
The date and time of the point appear at the top right of the
screen. The raw data file name appears top left. At the
bottom right appears the average value of all the points dis-
played so far and also the total number of points displayed
and averaged so far. The average of every 60 points appears
lower left and that point is drawn in white on red (or a differ-
ent shade on monochrome displays).
The seconds of data averaged per point (time resolution)
appears bottom center. This value is selected by running the
Setup portion of the program. Maximum time resolution is
the average of the data gathered during one TBU (Time Base
Unit). You can change this from one TBU to 9,999 TBUs of
data averaged per point. For example, if the program is in the
60 sec./TBU mode and you use Setup to assign a 60 TBU
time resolution, the strip/bar chart code will average 1 hr. of
data per point. Each point will then be the average micro-
roentgen/hr. radiation rate for the last hour. A good all-round
choice for time resolution is 5 or 10 minutes.
If the external device were active for any of the averaged
periods, the point will display in the external device active
format (for example (num) instead of <num>) and in the
external device active color previously selected in Setup.
If the next point to be displayed is above the screen or below
the screen, the entire screen will automatically scroll down or
up, so that the next point will be shown. If the program finds
it necessary to scroll the screen more than one screen depth,
to display the next point, it will blank the screen, move to the
new point, and then redraw the screen. Otherwise the pro-
gram could take an inordinate amount of time scrolling to a
point way out of range.
The up and down arrow keys scroll the screen down and up,
revealing any points off screen. (This feature also works
4