The results of data logging experiments are sometimes stored in the 'SID' format. This is a file format that needs to work across different manufacturers software. You should be able to 'Open' these files in your data logging program. Look for a reference to 'SID' in the 'Open' or 'Import SID' dialogues in the File menu. Then search for the folder where your Internet program saves things.
If you can't get your data logging software to do this, you can open a spreadsheet program, go to the 'File / Open' command and change the 'Files of Type' box to read All Files (*.*). Then search for the place where the Internet program saves things. You will end up with a fairly big table of data with readings in columns. You can then use the data to draw a scattergraph or do calculations.
You can also load a SID file into your word processor program. If you highlight the data you can turn it into a table of text. One of the difficulties with using anything other than a data logging program to open a SID file is that data logging produces lots of readings. In turn that means that your table will be about 600 rows long. Some data logging programs recognise this point and let you save a subset of the results, for example, they'll let you save say, one in five readings.
Occasionally, your spreadsheet program will fail to recognise that the file is just 'comma separated text' (see below). In this case, look for a command in the 'File / Open' dialogue box that tells the program that the file should be treated as comma separated text.
Different computer programs save sensor data in different formats. Each program can read its own format, but not any other. A few years ago the UK people who wrote data logging software got together to decide on a format that everybody's software could understand. Amazingly they made a decision, and this format they called SID.
The experiment results kept here were obtained using various data logging programs. You should be able to get these results into whatever data logging program you use. That's provided that the people who wrote your program know about SID. If someone would like to write a web browser plugin that reads and analyses data logging files that would be really 'kewl'.
It's a bit like having the same book in different languages, if you understand all those languages there's no problem reading them. Few computer programs can read these different languages or formats (MS Word does pretty well at it and achieved its dominant position as a result). Computer boffins will be able to set up 'File associations' on the computer so that if you double click on a SID file, it will open the appropriate spreadsheet program to read it.
-
About the SID format (technical)
School software developers - be sure that your data logging and data handling software supports the SID format.
Use a right click to download the SID technical specification SID technical specification (Acrobat file 40K ~30sec)
The SID format is just another form of the 'comma separated value' file. Sensor readings are placed on a single line and if several sensors were used at the same time their readings sit next to each other separated by commas. Here's a portion of a SID file just to make that clearer. Note that the first part of the file is called the header. A data logging program will be able to translate the header and display the appropriate axis scales:
%%identifier,SID
%%datasize,155,4
%%title,Weather 27 April
%%fieldname,1,Time
%%fieldunits,1,seconds
%%fieldname,2,Light
%%fieldunits,2,%
%%maxmin,2,100.0,0.0
%%fieldname,3,Temperature
%%fieldunits,3,celsius
%%maxmin,3,50.0,0.0
%%fieldname,4,Temperature
%%fieldunits,4,celsius
%%maxmin,4,50.0,0.0
%%interval,512
0,44.4,18.1,11.2
512,0.9,17.7,8.2
1024,0.8,17.4,8.4
1536,0.9,17.2,8.5
2048,0.8,17.0,8.5
2560,0.7,16.8,8.5
Then more readings...
|