Why can't I get graphics?

[dgasmd]

I have an AC2 connected to an old laptop. The laptop runs win 95 and was recently completely reconfigured to erase all non-essential programs. In other words, it ha snow as clean of a drive as it can with nothing but the original software it came with. My AC2 is set to record the parameters every 5 minutes. When I try to see the graph for temp of pH or ORP, I see the graphs with a huge scale of like 0-10000 or 0-1000 on the Y axis and 0-190 on the X axis. Not curves though. I hit the retrieve date bottom and after a while it says it has retrieved the data. I still can't change anything in the programing or options to change the scale on the graphs nor can I see any curves at all. How do I fix it???

 

[AcroSteve]

Have you left the PC connected and Aquanotes running for several hours?

I do not have a loptop, but I have experienced this problem occasionally, but if I just minimize AquaNotes, and leave it running, it seems to "catch up" after a while.

Retrieving Data Logs does not seem to help.

 

[dgasmd]

No, I do not have it connected and on all the time. I turned it on and off when I need to see or do something only. I will turn it on and leave it on for a day and see if anything changes. However, why do I have such a funky scame on the Y and X axis for the graphs? Any ideas here?

 

[vapormd]

dgasmd,

Not sure if this is related to your problem, but I had the same graphing problem which Curt traced back to the way the my dates were being formatted in Win98. If you go to your tank database, and look under tank conditions, does the data look correct in terms of the actual dates? If the dates are spread out over months (which it shouldn't be, since I assume you just hooked this up), then you may have to go to the regional settings control panel and adjust the date formats. This is his email response to me:

--- Curt Pansegrau <clp@neptunesys.com> wrote:
> Check your regional control panel. Make sure that the date format is US
> style dates. I suspect that a nonstandard setting is making the month/day
> get flipped around. The default short format is 'M/d/yyyy' and the long
> date format is 'dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy'.
>
> Curt

As to the graph scales, that happens when Aquanotes does not see any data to graph within the time scale you're specifying. Once it sees the data, then it will automatically adjust the scales to the graphed data.

As to not being able to adjust the programming, do you have the correct AC2 serial number entered into Aquanotes?

HTHs

 

[dgasmd]

Thanks for the reply. I checked the dates onthe computer and the AC2 and it is the same format. I can alter the program and see it at will, but the graphics is the only thing that does not work.

What do you mean by "regional settings control panel"?? If I go back to the AC itself, I can see the data there one by one by scrolling with the buttons.

By the way, my AC and computer have the year date on 05 and not 2005 as the email from curt suggests. If you can give me a press by press play here, I could go back and look at what you are refering. The serial number is entered correctly too.

 

[vapormd]

The regional settings control panel is part of windows OS, so you'll need to access it by clicking on the start menu in the bottom left corner, and then by selecting control panel from the start menu. In the window that opens, there will be a control panel named regional settings, and under one of the tabs, you'll have the option to set the formats as Curt outlined.

Are you sure that all the dates in the AC2 data are the correct dates? What had happened to me was that for some reason, because the date format was not what Aquanotes was expecting, the data points from the AC2 had all the wrong dates (the year and month were swapped because everything was in M/d/yy format instead of M/d/yyyy), and thus Aquanotes could not graph. If all your data points have the correct dates and times, then your problem is something else.

Also, after I changed the date format, all the previous data recorded by the AC2 was still incorrectly dated. Data from that point on, though, was correctly dated and graphed appropriately, so if you change the regional settings, you'll have to wait a few minutes for more data points (since you're recording every 5 min, correct?).

Also, for some reason, once you have the tank database window open, Aquanotes won't continually update the data in the window even though it will continually update it's own database. In order to get your new data to display, you'll need to close and reopen the database window.

 

[AcroSteve]

dgasmd, I must admint that what I suggested does not work all the time, but I have found that it does help. With that said, I will continue.

How many parameters and events are you graphing? Is the problem on all of the parameters, or just the ones that are reading probes? These are shown in the "Conditions" tab.

Currently, my session of Aquanotes has been up for a few days. I am graphing, temp, ph, heater, fan, co2 and chiller status. The data points on my x10 device status are being graphed fine. These are shown in the "Events" tab. But when there is a problem(which happens to be right now ), only the graphing of the conditions is being effected.

My last good data point for ph and temp was about noon yesterday. Since then, there have been no data points graphed.

My dates in the tank conditions are fine, but "9/10/2005 12:05:00 PM" was the last entry. My events are current.

Does your tank database have any entries in it at all? This is under Database>Tank Database.

 

[AcroSteve]

How is your graph looking now, Alberto? Anything at all?

I have left my session open and now, my conditions have caught up to "9/11/2005 7:30:00 PM". This is yesterday evening. No conditions have been recorded after that. Events yes, conditions, no. The data looks to be complete, there are no "holes" in the data.

Is yours behaving in this fashion, or are there still no conditions being recorded? Is the information in the "Status" screen complete?

 

[dgasmd]

Steve:

Nothing yet. I went to the windows time and date and they are in the same fashion as he controller. I do get events nd it does record when there has been any changes or when I open up the software or transmit the data, but nothing in the graphics at all. That is even after I left it on for a while. Also, I noticed that you are graphing 6 things when I an only add 4 to the graphics. All I want to see so far is the pH, ORP, and temp. The rest I could care less about.

As a last resort, I will disconnect it from the computer and try to play with the AC2 settings themselves. I am sure it is something simple I am yet to figure out.

Thanks for trying to help out though.

 

[kbecker]

As an alternative, you could have excel query your AC2 (like i have it do to my AC3) and populate the table when the sheet is opened and at specific time periods. For example, my sheet queries the ac3 when I open it and fills the sheet with data. Then the sheet queries the ac3 every six minutes for updates (my logs are saved every 10 mins). The pH and Temp are then graphed on seperate sheets.

 

[dgasmd]

kbecker:

You might as well be talking nuclear physics buddy LOL.......... The computer I have it set up with is so old I doubt it would support Excell. Plus, I am not familiar with using Excell.

I started playing with the settings in the AC2 itself and figured it out somehow by mistake. I just did not have it configured. It is always the simplest thing that gets the hardest problems solved.

Thanks to all for the help.

 

[AcroSteve]

Would you mind telling us what you changed?

Might help me with my issue too.

 

[dgasmd]

I really don't know. In the Ac itself, I went to set up and went to the area where you set up the pH, ORP, etc. I hit the one for the serial connection and two options come up: one for RS 235 and another for RS 485 or something like that. I don't really know which I tokk off or added and then it came right up. Play with those 2 and see what happens.

 

[AcroSteve]

OK.

Those are the two communication protocols that are supported by the AC. Kind of like telling it what language to speak.

Using the wrong one would definitely cause communications problems.