DATA/VIEWER

Software to acquire and display data from CEION ,DCU2 and

DCU3 Dataloggers

Version 4

User’s Guide

Teledyne Cormon.
Unit 26-28
Decoy Road
Worthing
West Sussex BN14 8ND
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (0)1903 854800
Fax: +44 (0)1903 703603
Email: LNG.support@teledyne.com
Web: www.teledyne.com

USER PRODUCT INSTRUCTION No 021

REVISION CHANGE Change by Approved by
B Upgrade to version 4 Viewer functionality PS BD
C Address/logo change PS

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1. Introduction
This document describes the software that is supplied with the CEION,DCU” and DCU3 data logger
corrosion monitoring instruments.

This utility accesses data from one or more files produced by the Monitor application or by
the Ceion,DCU2 or DCU3 data loggers and produces a graphical display of the recorded
metal loss and temperature (where applicable) for each probe and, if required, a plot of the
calculated loss rate. Selected data may be exported in comma-delimited format for easy access
by other applications.

2. Installation
The software may be installed by running the ‘setup.exe’ utility on the distribution discs. This will
install all the required run-time libraries and will copy the necessary executable files into a directory
specified by the user.

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3. Data Viewer Program –for viewing files created by the transmitting or data
logging instruments.
The main panel of the Data Viewer program is shown in Fig.3.1 below:

Fig. 3.1: Main display panel of Data Viewer

3.1 Initial setup It is useful to set a number of options before the program is used for the first time.
Once the relevant options have been set, it is not necessary to carry out the following procedure each
time the program is loaded.

3.1.1 Options:

Selecting Options > Filepaths from the menu bar will display the panel shown in Fig. 3.2 below.

The default directories for the input and output files can be specified in the appropriate textual field
boxes on the panel.

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 Fig. 3.2: Panel for defining Setup\ Filepaths in Data Viewer

3.1.2 Define display options: Choosing the Options > Display Options from the menu bar enables
the default properties of the graph to be set from the panel shown in Fig. 3.3.

Fig. 3.3: Panel for defining Display Options in Data Viewer

Include Loss Trend Line

Checking the ‘Include Loss Trend Line’ option will cause a diagonal trend line to be displayed on the
graph, which is intended to supply a rough indication of likely loss rates. Once again, the loss rate of
the displayed line is shown in the numeric field labelled ‘Trend Loss Rate’ at the bottom, right of the
main panel.

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User Defined Axes

Checking the User Defined Axes option will allow manual selection of minimum and maximum data
values on the graph axes.

Default Right Axis

The default right axis may be selected to be Temperature or Loss Rate

Units For Display

The units in which any data are expressed may be defined by selecting either:-

Imperial loss in mils (10-3 inch ) rate in mpy and temperature in deg F.

or

Metric loss in nm (10-6 mm) rate in mmpy and temperature in deg C from the drop-down list.

If the ‘Calculate Loss Rate on Loading File’ option has been selected on the ‘Setup Options’ panel (see
§ 4.1.1 above), either loss rate or temperature may be selected as the default parameter to be plotted on
the right-hand axis of the graph. This may be achieved by selecting the appropriate value from the
‘Default Right Axis’ drop-down box.

3.1.3 Define Loss Rate Calculation:

Choosing the Options > Loss Rate Calculation from the menu bar enables the default properties of
the rate calculation to be set from the panel shown in Fig. 3.4.

Fig. 3.4: Panel for defining Display Options in Data Viewer

Check the Calculate Loss Rate box to enable the calculation.

Select from the Loss Rate Period drop down box the period of data over which the loss rate
calculation should be performed.

The loss rate is determined from a linear regression of the period of loss data centred on each data point
and is calculated when the selected data files are loaded. Calculating the loss rate may take a significant
time (i.e. tens of seconds) for a large data file (especially on a slow computer). Once calculated,
however, the data may be stored and subsequently retrieved by the Viewer program. It is thus not
necessary to perform the loss rate calculations repeatedly.

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4.0 Operation

The following notes outline the main operational features of the program.

4.1.1 Exiting program: The program may be closed using the File > Exit option on the menu bar.

4.1.2 Loading data: Data may be loaded either from a single file or from a number of consecutive files
produced by the same corrosion monitor. Thus a number of successive data series may, if required, be
concatenated to produce a single quasi-continuous record of loss and temperature.

Selecting the File > Open option from the menu bar allows files in a number of different formats to be
selected for input:

Binary File (*.cmn) this is the standard format for files produced by the Monitor
program and should be selected when such data files are to be
accessed.
Text File (*.txt) Ceion,DCU2 and DCU3 Data Logger files (earlier versions of the
Monitor program also allowed data files to be produced in a
simple ASCII format)

Processed File (*.cml) selected data (possibly containing calculated loss rates) may also be
exported from the Viewer program in this format. This option
allows such data to be re-loaded into the Viewer program.

Once a file format has been selected, the following panel (fig 4.1) will be displayed:

Fig. 4.1: Panel used to select one or more input files for display

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The required files should be located and added to the ‘Selected Files’ box either by double clicking on
the file name in the upper box or by highlighting the file name and then clicking the Add button. Once
all the required files have been listed in the lower box, clicking the ‘OK’ button will load the data from
the files into the program. (It is not necessary to list files in the ‘Selected Files’ box in any particular
order; the files are automatically ordered into the correct sequence within the program.)

The message ‘Processing input data’ is displayed on the main display panel whilst data are being
loaded. As noted above, it may take some time to load a large data file if loss rates are to be calculated..
The times corresponding to the start and end of the file are also displayed at each end of the strip
control immediately above the scroll buttons.

The initial metal loss shown towards the bottom right of the main panel is just the recorded loss
corresponding to the first point in the data file. The initial loss datum may, however, be changed as
described in §4.1.5 below.

A maximum of four separate, possibly joined together (concatenated), time series may be handled
concurrently by the Viewer. The time series to be displayed may be selected as described in §4.1.4
below.

4.1.3 Closing a data file: Selecting the File > Close option from the menu bar will close the currently
displayed file.

4.1.4 Selecting the file to display: The file to be displayed may be chosen from those that are currently
loaded by selecting the ‘Window’ option on the menu bar.

4.1.5 Changing axes: The graph axes may be changed at any time using the ‘Graph Options’ panel
shown below. This may be accessed by selecting Options > Set Graph Axes from the menu bar or by
right clicking on the graph itself.

Fig. 4.2: The ‘Graph Options’ panel

The range of each axis may be set by selecting an appropriate value from the corresponding drop-down
list. Either temperature or loss-rate (if it has been calculated) may be selected for plotting and display
on the right hand axis using the ‘Right Axis’ drop-down menu.

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If ‘User-Defined Axes’ is selected in ‘Options’\’Display Options’ then the ‘Define Axes’ window
below will be shown.

Fig. 4.3: The ‘Define-Axes’ panel

maximum and minimum values may be selected for the display together with the number of divisions
over which the entered range is displayed. The time axis may also be selected.

Clicking on the ‘Reset Initial Loss’ control will produce a pair of ‘cross-hairs’ on the graph. The
corresponding cursor may then be positioned at any point on the metal loss plot to re-define the zero
loss datum.

4.1.6 Using graph cursors: The cursors provide identical functions to those included in the Monitor
program. Each of the cursors may be positioned at any point on the metal loss trace either by left
clicking on that point or by dragging the cursor to the required location. The recorded metal loss at
each cursor and the corresponding temperature and time are then reported in the numeric fields below
the graph area. Also displayed is the calculated metal loss rate between the two selected cursor
locations. This provides a quick and convenient method of estimating loss rates.

4.1.7 Scrolling data: The scrolling controls at the bottom of the main panel operate in a similar fashion
to those in the Monitor program. Thus:

|< re-positions the graph to include the oldest data available in the current file.
< > scrolls the graph backwards or forwards by half the width of the current time axis.
<< >> scrolls the graph backwards or forwards by the width of the current time axis.
>| re-positions the graph to include the last data in the file.

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The approximate position of the currently displayed data in the input file is indicated by the yellow
strip control immediately above the scrolling buttons. Alternative sections of data may also be selected
for plotting, simply by clicking on this strip control.

Finally, the ‘|< || >|’ control provides a simple zoom facility. Clicking on this control expands the time
axis so that the data contained between the cursors are displayed at the highest available resolution.

4.1.8 Copying and printing panels: The whole display panel or just the area containing the graph may
be copied to the clipboard using the File > Copy options from the menu bar. The same areas may
similarly be printed using the File > Print options.

4.1.9 Exporting data: Either part or all of the currently selected data set may be exported to a file in a
simple, comma-delimited ASCII format by choosing the File > Export File / Export Part File option
from the menu bar. If the Export Part File option is chosen, only the data lying between the cursors on
the graph are exported. The resulting files are stored with a .csv extension and may thus be readily
accessed by standard utilities such as Excel.

4.2.0 Saving calculated loss data: As noted above, the calculation of loss rates may take a significant
time when large data sets are being loaded. All the data in the current data set (which may consist of
concatenated input files), including the calculated loss rates, may thus be stored in a file by selecting
the File > Save As option from the menu bar. This file (which is stored with a .cml extension) may
then subsequently be directly read by the Viewer program (see §4.1.2), thus avoiding having repeatedly
to re-calculate the loss rates.

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