BuffermetryFundamentals of moisture buffering Properties of hygroscopic materials Diffusion enhanced materials and structures Experimental: Sorption experiments Experimental: Diffusion experiments Incorporating the buffer in the construction Whole room simulations and experiments Experiment in the Passys environmental room Appendices - instruments and procedures Wiki howto |
Routine running tinmanThe climate chamber program is run on top of another program screen to make the chamber control program persist after user logout. screen is a multiplexing program for unix which, like windows, allows several programs to run concurrently and allows the operator to bring one of these programs into the foreground. All instructions to screen start with pressing control plus a, followed by an instruction, usually a single letter. Start a terminal Then start screen
This will return a prompt Next start the tinman program:
These two instructions can be combined:
Check that it is starting up properly by watching the opening sequence and following the first minute or two of output. Then initiate logging of this data stream to file:
A confirmatory text will appear briefly at the bottom left of the screen (to stop logging press control-a H again) Logging to the screen will now stop. When satisfied that everything is functioning, detach the program from the screen with control-a then d:
then you can close the terminal and log out from the computer (but don't turn it off!). to resume: open a terminal and then reconnect the program thus:
If you forgot to detach it earlier, it seems to resume ok The program will continue to run so long the computer is running. To stop the program, bring it back as described above then control-c. This stops the python program which is controlling the climate chamber.
This will close the program safely. You may need to do it twice. The screen will show a message like ..close(204....) to show that it has closed down safely. If everything is muddled you can stop the 'screen' program:
control-a then control- This stops the program in a messy way. So you need to start up ./climch_cc.py to close the climate chamber down in a safe way. This program starts the chamber then gives you the choice to press 'x' [rtn] to close it down in an orderly way. If completely confused about closing down the program, open a terminal and type:
This will show something like: 2916 ? Ss 0:00 SCREEN -h 120 ./climch103.py Then try:
(substitute the actual number shown by this command when you use it) Then run climch_i.py, as instructed above. More info about screen:
The log file quickly becomes large, so the computer is set to archive the file once a day as a zipped and dated history file. The log file is then emptied ready to accumulate the next days results. The data file, which records every ten minutes, accumulates indefinitely. It is fetched by padfield.org at regular intervals and displayed publicly on the wiki, so you need not access the tinman computer except to change the operating conditions. Note: when the climate chamber is not active, you must open the lid slightly, otherwise the internal RH will rise to 100% and you will get condensation on the apparatus. Check the water reservoir level before resuming operation. Adjusting the climate chamber programYou have to log in to the tinman computer. To login from outside you have to go to a proxy computer, which alone has the right to contact the tinman computer. You first take over this proxy computer through ssh (see written instructions) From this intermediate computer you must then take over the tinman computer in the same way. You are now in a text console and can start and stop programs and edit files as you wish, exactly as if you were in the tinman room. It is convenient to type 'mc' to get into midnight commander and inspect the various files.
For example, use F5 to copy climch_cc.py to climch_cc_run118.txt, so you have a copy of the parameters for the previous run. Then press F4 (function key) to edit climch_cc.py, remembering to increase the run number by one. F2 will save the modified file exit mc (F9 - f - x - y) To retrieve the data file to a remote computer The experimental data is frequently updated on the wiki, so you can collect it from there. More detailed instructions and explanations are in the instruction book in the tinman room. |