Radiant X4: A Laser Power Meter for the budget minded!

[The_Doctor]

Thanks. I still can't get it though. Might be down to OperaUSB v10.3, a useful but quirky browser for sure.. When I click the Lightspeed or driver package links, weird stuff seems to momentarily happen, then I see a contact form, but no linkage, just a half-hidden square arrow button, and a very large amount of apparently empty page. If this is new 'functionality' born of the latest web2 ideas, it may be that nothing will work round it because web2 is spiralling out of ALL of the ideas any consensus of engineers ever had for the internet. In other words, do you have any brutally simple old-fashioned HTML as a fallback?

(Eventually web2 will drive damn near EVERYONE to fall back as the only viable consensual means of web based comms will be in the past, until people go back to solid roots and regrow the entire web. Sadly the nightmare will continue for a few more years before this happens).

[csshih]

try this direct link?
http://www.radiantelectronics.org/do...LightSpeed.exe

I thought the site worked well.. even on IE.

[The_Doctor]

try this direct link?
http://www.radiantelectronics.org/do...LightSpeed.exe

I thought the site worked well.. even on IE.

It looked great. Just didn't give the link. I couldn't run the program either... Dependency Walker shows two dependencies missing, psapi.dll, I had (just not where Lightspeed needed it), mscoree.dll (dotNet runtime library) I did not, but found online. Lightspeed didn't seem to be the trouble, that looks like it might be compatible with all Win32, which is good, but mscoree.dll isn't compatible with W98 SE. So I'm SOL, again.... The crazy thing is, that a lot of newer systems can reduce me to a mewling puking baby if I let them, and one way I do not let them is not to run them. This is why I really like to get at data direct from some older system that the Win32 API is likely to support in all times in its history. That way I code my own answer. Newer systems seem designed at source to shut people out, not to allow them to do this. Ideally if I can get it from a serial port, I have so many ways to use it it's an embarassment of riches rather than a handicap. With USB there's a good chance that if I got the program to run, I'd then find the USB driver won't work without first installing NUSB (a clever hack using a mix of WXP, WME and other system files and registry entries someone made for defiant W98 users).

Old systems are good. Sadly most never realise this until they're gone, leaving a user stranded like a log on a beach, helpless. This problem won't get better, not while Microsoft keep pushing people around. Linux, and OpenBSD especially, are the only solid anchor left. But coders striving for full Win32 compatibility helps a lot, but that's a sea anchor, it won't fix to anything really solid. DotNet was 'supposed' to work better for more people, but in fact has shut many out, forcing them to spend more to get abilities they never knew they already had. MS compilers do the same, and worse. GCC in this case is the anchor sorely needed by the rest of the computing world.
/rant...

Back to topic, what I'm not sure is if there is any way I can use the logging ability of the meter at all. Without serial portage I may not even be able to connect to it. I noticed it had several protcols, which looked good. Thing is, if they all come out of one USB port I might be in a tight GoTo SOL loop.

Edit:
Small GPS modules use serial, no matter how new and sophisticated they get. I think a lot of engineers' stuff does because they know it's a dead cert they won't run into the troubles caused by USB...

[dnar]

Dnar - calibration is not linear. It is also in the software of the device.

Craig

Er, no it's not in software. The input board provides 1mV per 1mW. I know this as I added an output socket for logging and the meter board is definately just a volt meter and linear.

The input PCB has 2 trimmers, I assume one for gain the other offset null. If you can't provide details for which is which I will simply reverse engineer this board and work it out myself.

[The_Doctor]

Ok, this is interesting.. Anyway, I thought a thermopile was always linear in the sort of range these work at. Noise is the main gotcha, and response time.

[ARGLaser]

Er, no it's not in software. The input board provides 1mV per 1mW. I know this as I added an output socket for logging and the meter board is definately just a volt meter and linear.

The input PCB has 2 trimmers, I assume one for gain the other offset null. If you can't provide details for which is which I will simply reverse engineer this board and work it out myself.

I think you've confused the Alpha with the X4. I only see one trim pot on the PCB above.

[csshih]

Er, no it's not in software. The input board provides 1mV per 1mW. I know this as I added an output socket for logging and the meter board is definately just a volt meter and linear.

The input PCB has 2 trimmers, I assume one for gain the other offset null. If you can't provide details for which is which I will simply reverse engineer this board and work it out myself.

My apologies, I thought you were referring to the X4, which does not have trimpots for calibration.
I assume you're referring to the Radiant Alpha? If so - then it does indeed have 2 trimpots. One is for zeroing, one is for gain.

With the X4, we noticed that the sensor response was not completely linear, so calibration is in software now.

Craig

[dnar]

My apologies, I thought you were referring to the X4, which does not have trimpots for calibration.
I assume you're referring to the Radiant Alpha? If so - then it does indeed have 2 trimpots. One is for zeroing, one is for gain.

With the X4, we noticed that the sensor response was not completely linear, so calibration is in software now.

Craig

Yes, as I posted I have the very first model. Can you please tell me which trimpot is zero, which is gain?

[csshih]

the one marked 101 is the trimpot for zero.

[dnar]

the one marked 101 is the trimpot for zero.

tx .