Basic AMD System

The Basic AMD system comes with a 12v rechargable battery, internal charging unit and connector leads, 2 score pads with 20m cables, a hand control reset button with 20m cable, a display mounting stand / carry case.  .

The basic system is very simple to set up, make sure the 12v battery is charged before you use it, connect the battery, connect the pad, turn on the power switch and you're ready to go.

If using a 12v battery as an additional power supply, take care to observe the polarity requirements of the display system, (Brown is +(live) and Blue is -(ground) connect the 12v battery, make sure you align the power connector to the socket, it will only go in one way, screw the power connector fully, hand tight, into the socket, correctly orientate the pad connector, push in into the socket, screw the pad socket retaining screws into the display unit .

The battery condition light should be illuminated, the display will show that the power supply is active by showing two horizontal bars in the center line of the display.

Carry out a finger pressure "push test," and test the pad sequentially from 00 through to 16cm, a 00 score will activate the DC alarm for 10 seconds, press the reset button to cancel the alarm and clear the score, each successive score will display for 10 second or press the reset button to clear the display.

Now position the pad on the tuffet, use the 4 tie down points and bungee elastic cord to secure the pad in the center of the tuffet. 

The display unit is water resistant, however should it become wet it is advised that you make every effort to fully dry out all the sockets and cable connector before use.

We cannot be held accountable in any way for your deployment or use of the AMD system in any way whatsoever, it is your responsibility to ensure that the system is used safely at all times.

Competition AMD System

THE CONTROL PANEL and DATA RECORDER

The control panel is the primary access point for setting the system options;

By pressing the MENU button you have access to the 7 core programmes.

#1 Allows you to set the date and time.

#2 Starts the data logging facility, it will store the Time (HHMMSS), Wind speed, Direction and Score (170119,05,276,03) the memory is large enough to store 75 hours data 2,70,000 seconds to be precise, that said you will find it very tedious to upload all this data, so we recommend that you use the "Stop Log" whenever you stand down for any reason.                                                                   Data log to PC transfer is covered later.

#3 WARNING Clear Memory is exactly what it says....It will delete the data stored in the recorder memory! It will NOT change any programme selections you have made.

We recommend uploading the data from the data log at the end of every round if practicable, that way you can produce a text file which is a CSV file, you can import this directly into a spreadsheet programme and print a full set of results. Uploading the data file will NOT delete the contents of the memory all further data will be appended, no data will be lost.

DO NOT  use the "CLEAR MEMORY" function until the competition is completed!

#4 Calibrate Wind Direction - You need to calibrate because the output of the sensor varies from unit to unit and it is not exactly defined. Once you calibrate it for a particular unit, you will have to calibrate again only when you change the sensor or you feel some error has crept in over a period of time; which should be more than a year.

To calibrate; Ignore the large LED display. Move and Hold the fin of the wind sensor so that you get 1, the minimum reading on the LCD display.  Keep watching the LCD screen reading. Press ENT Move the fin to 360 i.e. the maximum reading on the display. Hold it there. Press ENT. Press ESC. That's it.

#5 Diagnose Port - This function is to allows us to help you to find out if anything is wrong with your system or connections.

#6 Set Display Time - This feature allows you to set the time the display will show the score for; If your only using the 00-16cm pad, an 8-10 second interval will be fine, if you're using the large 1.4m pad as a rear foot strike pad. you might like to set the delay for 12 seconds or more. If your using the system in training mode with the large pad you can set the delay for as long as you need.

#7 Select 16cm or 50cm as the missed score function.

THE DATA DISPLAY

The score display is designed to accept data from the small 0-16cm pad and the large 1.25m dual purpose competition / training pad.

In competition mode, the large pad acts as a rear foot strike pad, in training mode, it acts as a supplemental scoring area, giving scores of 20, 25, 30, 35,40, 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65cm.

The sockets on the side of the score display are;

1. COM (RS485) is for connecting the Basic AMD display as a slave unit which will repeat the scores shown on the competition display.

2. Reset is to connect the reset hand control, this control unit has 2 touch sensitive buttons, Red and Yellow; Red to reset the display to accept another landing event, the Yellow to enter a score of 16cm if a competitor misses the target, this feature is included so that the time of landing and score is recorded in the data recorder.

3. Wind Sensor is for connecting the anemometer and wind vane to the display system

4. Com Port (RS232) allows the user to connect a PC or Laptop, this connection enables 2 way communication between both the PC and Display.

5. Score Pad is for connecting the small 0-16cm pad.

6. Score Pad 2 is for connecting the 1.4m score pad.

7. Battery, take care to observe the polarity requirements of the display system, (Brown is + (live) and Blue is - (ground).

THE ANEMOMETER / WIND VANE and 7M MAST

The Anemometer and Wind Vane are pre assembled, calibrated and comes with 100m of cable.

Once the anemometer and wind vane are connected the LCD panel will show wind direction and wind speed.

The wind speed function allows you to select 6, 7 or 8 meters per second as the maximum wind speed, the continuous audible alarm will sound if the maximum speed is exceeded by 0.1m/s

If the wind speed is in excess of the selected maximum, the audible alarm will sound continuously, the wind speed display will flash on and off for 10 seconds as a visual warning, all data recording will continue.

If the wind speed exceeds 9 m/s, the wind speed will be displayed, the wind direction display will now start a 300 second countdown (5 Minutes) data recording will continue throughout

PC Connection and Data transfer

The concept is simple, the data recorder logs the time, wind speed, wind direction and each score every second, transferring that data to the PC or Laptop is a simple process.

However a word of caution.. when transferring data from the recorder; Data logging is "suspended" so it's not a good idea to transfer the data until you have a natural pause in the competition.

The system works both ways you can transfer information in and out, your PC or laptop can be used to programme the display unit and you can download the data into your HD as a text file, this is a CSV file (Comma Separated Value)

This type of file (CSV) can be imported into a spreadsheet programme and you can use that for score recording or you can import it into a word processing programme and create your results from that.

The most basic data transfer is from the Competition display to the Basic Display, using the 2 pin "com port to com port" cable connectors via the RS485 protocol you can have the basic display act as a remote repeater unit which will show the scores as they occur from the main Competition Display, we supply a 30m cable as standard.

The Competition display is the Master and is always in transmission mode, all you need do is connect the two displays, attach the power supply to the basic display and you're ready to go.

The PC or Laptop can be used to programme the display unit, connect your PC or Laptop via the USB / Serial port connector, establish a data stream via Windows™ HyperTerminal and enter the following instruction command codes

To transfer data from the display to the PC or Laptop....

HyperTerminal Live Data Stream and Display Internal Memory Download

The objective is to create a desktop folder where you can store a TEXT file, extract the data from the recorder and convert that data into a .txt file.

1.       Connect the Display to the PC using the USB / Serial adaptor cable. 

2.       Using the PC, Open ‘Start Menu’

3.       Open ‘All Programs’

4.       Open ‘Accessories’

5.       Open ‘ Communications’

6.       Open Program ‘Hyper Terminal’

7.       Once in Hyper Terminal a window will pop up called ‘Connection Description’.  Under the section ‘Name:’ type “D” and click ‘Ok’  (note: icon selection is not necessary as the icon will not effect the Data stream although an icon may be selected to suit the user)

8.       Having completed stage 7, a second pop-up window will appear called ‘Connect to’. Under the section ‘Connect using’ select the Com-Port you are using from the drop down menu and click ‘OK’  (note:  The com-port is the USB socket you have plugged the DISPLAY into and will appear as ‘COM-1’ through to the maximum number of communication sockets your computer has i.e. ‘COM-8’. Please refer to your computers user manual for COM-port numbers.) You can also try looking in the Device Manager for a “USB Serial Adaptor” this should tell you which Com port you’re using. (Control Panel - To open Device Manager, click Start, and then click Control Panel. Double-click System. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager. Scroll down to the Ports icon, expand that and you will find a list of the com ports in use.

9.       Having completed stage 8 a third pop-up window will appear called ‘COM-# Properties’. From the drop down menu set ‘Bits Per Second’ to “9600”, ‘Data Bits’ to “8”, ‘Parity’ to “None”, ‘Stop Bits’ to “1” and ‘Flow Control’ to “None” then click ‘OK’.

10.   You should now see the live Data Stream from the DISPLAY being updated every second, every data update should look like the following. “[breaker]--00000[breaker]”. The first 2 numbers are the score, the second 2 numbers are the wind speed without the decimal and the last 3 numbers are the wind direction. If the data does not follow this pattern or you are not seeing any data at all close Hyper Terminal and return to stage 5 and confirm your input for stage 11 and 12. If you are seeing the data as described please continue to stage 14.

11.   In Hyper Terminal open ‘View’ and click ‘Font’, scroll to the top of the font list and select the font called ‘Consolas’ and adjust font size to as needed using the ‘Size’ column then click ok. The data will remain in the same format but the font should be easier to read.

12.   To record this data or when taking the data from the display’s log open ‘Transfer’ and click ‘Capture Text’. A pop-up window will appear called ‘Capture Text’.

13.   Click ‘Browse’ and select or create a folder to save your DISPLAY live data stream and the display’s internal memory. Open this file and in the text bar called ‘File Name:’ type in a name to call the file. Texair suggests calling the Folder “Texair DISPLAY Log’s” and the File name “Event name DDMMYY”. Once the file has been named click ‘Save’ then click ‘Start’. You are now recording the live data feed from the DISPLAY to your computer as a .txt file.                  

14.   To download the data saved on the display’s internal memory "right click" in the Hyper Terminals main window where the live data is being streamed and displayed, then press the "D” key, then press the Return” key. Be aware that although you are typing, NO text will appear in the Hyper Terminal window. This will start the Data Download from the display’s internal memory.  (Unlike the live data stream the data Download will be in a single column and will be in the following format “000000,00,000,00” the first 6 number being the clock time as set on the DISPLAY (HHMMSS). The second set of number being the Wind Speed, the third set being the Wind Direction and the final set being the score. The score will only be displayed for the single recorded instance when there is a score input.   

       Also be aware that during a Data Download of this kind the display system will be in a standby mode where no data will be recorded AND displayed Data on the Competition display or Repeater Score Box will not be updated until the Data Download is completed.)

15.   Once you have come to a point where you wish to stop logging the data i.e. the Data Download has completed.  In Hyper Terminal click ‘Transfer’ then click ‘Capture Text’ then click ‘Stop’. You have now stopped the recording of data to the .txt file.

 This Text file can be used with a Varity of Windows™ based programs that will allow you to take the data and put it into a variety of formats for easier presentation of data such as score cards, general wind speed and direction graphs and competition ranking tables.

In the following section we will talk you through how this data can by transferred into a Windows™ based program by using Microsoft office Excel. This program will aid you in sorting through long periods of data in super fast time. 

Text Conversion and transferring to a Windows™ based program.

 For this section you will need the .txt file from the previous section and Microsoft office Excel.

This system has been tried and tested in Excel 2007.

1.       Using Microsoft Wordpad from the accessories menu, locate and open the .txt file with the data you wish to use.

In the opened Wordpad window, using the mouse, highlight all of the “Header” Live Data Stream text at the top and delete it.  Scroll down to the bottom of the text file and delete the “Footer” Live Data Stream as well. This data can be safely deleted from the text file; the only data required from the text file will look like this

 133333,09,142

 133334,09,142

 133335,11,142

 133336,13,113

 133337,15,113

 133338,16,113

 133339,20,113,01

 133340,22,116

 133341,21,116

 133342,20,116

 133343,19,116

 133344,19,136

 133345,18,136

 133346,19,136

 133347,18,136,05

 133348,18,136

 133349,18,137

2.      In Wordpad click ‘File’ and click ‘Save’ or ‘Save As’ if you wish to create a new txt. File.

3.      Close Wordpad

4.      Open ‘Start Menu’.

5.      Open ‘All Programs’.

6.      Open ‘Microsoft Office’.

7.      Click ‘Microsoft Office Excel’.

8.      In Microsoft Office Excel click the ‘Data’ tab, it can be found on the top of the window.

9.      In the ‘Get External Data’ section click ‘From Text’.

10.   Locate the .txt file that has the data you wish to use and click import.

11.   Click ‘Next’ in the pop-up window.

12.   In the ‘Delimiter’ section of the second pop-up window click the check box next to ‘Comma’ then click ‘Finish’

13.   In the pop-up window called ‘Import Data’ click ‘OK’

14.   This will import all of the data from the .txt file into Microsoft Office Excel.

15.   Column A is the time (HHMMSS), Column B is the Wind Speed minus the decimal, Column C is the Wind Direction and Column D is the Score.

 N.B. The score will only be recorded at the exact time the score input is registered by the AMD.