Nortek Vector Comprehensive Manual

Also see for Vector: Quick start guide

Contents

Nortek Vector Comprehensive Manual Manual pdf 44 page image

Comprehensive Manual44© 2018 Nortek ASThe Vectrino Profiler power lines are diode protected, hence, you do not have to worry about wiringthe power backwards. If you do, it will not damage your instrument.USB-Serial ConverterThe USB-Serial converter is a high-speed device which supports up to a 1.25 MBaud transmissionrate over shorter distances. It is important that the most up to date version of the drivers be installedwith the converter. Driver updates are available from the FTDI web site at http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.At high sampling rates (above 60 Hz), the driver parameters need to be tuned to provide an adequatedisplay rate for the application software. Without this tuning, higher sampling rates will appear to beslow and bursty.Open Windows Device Manager, expand Ports (Com and LPT), right-click on the appropriate serialport and select Properties.With the properties in view, click on the Port Settings tab. The baud rate displayed (9600 in themenu shown) doesn’t have to be changed. The application will automatically set the baud rate ofboth the USB-serial port and the instrument to the requested rate in the connection menu so thisdriver entry can be left unchanged.Click on the Advanced buttonChange the Latency Timer to 5 msec. Faster systems should be able to use 2 msec.Remove and re-insert the USB connector to activate the parameters.While having a lower latency timer is better, it can result in significantly higher CPU usage on slowermachines. If the data transfer from the instrument has degraded noticeably with the new latencytimer, increase it to a larger number. Ideally, this number should not be larger than 8 ms or the datadisplay refresh will start becoming choppy at higher sampling rates. The software will warn the user ifit detects that the latency timer has not been correctly set.2.3.2 Instrument softwareFind the software on the memory stick that came with the instrument, or on the web site. To installthe software, double-click on Vectrino Profiler_setup.exe. This will copy the appropriate files to theinstallation directory and create a shortcut to the application on the desktop.The Vectrino Profiler acquisition software on the included memory stick requires Java virtual machine(JVM) to operated. The software has been tested with the sun JVM available from http://www.java.com/ but is also known to be fully functional with other JVMs.Double clicking on the software shortcut will start it. The application initially displays an emptyinstrument panel. To connect to an instrument, select Communication: Connect and choose thedesired instrument. This will bring up a connection dialog box for the instrument. Then:Select the appropriate serial port and port speed (baud rate) and press Apply.A baud rate of 937500 is recommended for best performance of the Vectrino ProfilerAn instrument name can be specified if desired. This will help to differentiate between instrumentswhen several are used in the same experiment.Setting the serial port to SIM will simulate an instrument connected to the serial port.After the instrument has been connected, an instrument display panel is created showing theassociated data displays for the current configuration as well as the action buttons for theinstrument. In addition to the action buttons, a status display is shown on the upper right of thepanel. This shows the instrument name and type and four status lights used to display statusinformation while collecting data (run status, collection status, connection status, and instrumentstatus). Hovering the mouse over each status light will display more detailed information.For more detailed information using the software, check the SW User Guide, available under "Help".