Shareware
Click here for Chris Grachanen's Uncertainty & Tolerance Calculators .
Shareware Files
(Be sure to read about downloading the software before you try to obtain a file.)
Check Your Colors by using the BGRTOOL software to create any of 256,000 possible color combinations on your display by using the standard blue, green, and red display colors. The software also lets you observe any foreground color against any background color. This program, provided as a stand-alone executable file and as a Quick Basic 4.5 file, proves helpful when you design GUI screens or instrument displays. Adjust colors until you get the combinations you need. To obtain the files, download BGRTOOL.ZIP (36 kbytes).
Control a Parallel Port. You can use the parallel-port control software in this file to toggle individual port bits. The program accepts pin numbers that correspond to the pins at a printer port's DB-25 connector. To obtain the software, download the PPort1.zip file that works with Windows 95/95. Be sure to read the included text file for instructions and shareware information.
Convert WAV files to ASCII and vice versa. The WAV2ASC.ZIP file on the TDL Technology site contains an MS-DOS program that will convert an audio WAV file to a list of floating-point values in an ASCII text file. A companion program will convert the values in an ASCII text file to a single-channel WAV file. The file contains C-language source code as well as the executable program files.
IEEE-488 Driver runs under FreeBSD-4.0 Unix and controls National Instruments' AT-GPIB/TNT and AT-GPIB instrument-controller cards.
Tolerance Calculator for Windows 3.1 performs calculations associated with the interpretation of equipment tolerances, test-uncertainty ratios, accumulated uncertainties, and so on. Download the file tolcal3.zip (802 kbytes) and run the Setup.exe file.
Uncertainty Calculator for Windows 95 computes and expresses measurement uncertainty in a straightforward way. Download the file UNC_2-5.ZIP (2.2 Mbytes), a self-extracting ZIP file. (Revised June 2, 1999.)
Mismatch Uncertainty Calculator for Windows 95 performs uncertainty analysis associated with microwave mismatch components, conversions between reflection coefficient, return loss, and SWR. Download the file MISMATCH.ZIP (1.45 Mbytes), a self-extracting ZIP file. (Posted May 6, 1998.)
SStreams/LabView has rated
and reviewed links to 67 LabView freeware that are available for download: http://www.sstreams.com/LabVIEW/.
(Posted February 22, 2000.)
Shareware Sites
An engineering company in Greece provides mechanical reference information and on-line calculators you can use when designing mechanical assemblies. The Web site: www.monachos.gr/eng/calculators/calculators.htm also provides voltage-drop and motor-selection calculators for electrical engineers.
If you work with DLLs, the free PEBrowsePRO program might prove useful. This program produces a graphical and textual display of decoded information in a DLL. The software also disassembles DLLs and produces a hexadecimal and mnemonic display of assembly-language code. You can download it from www.zdnet.com.au/swlib/Computer_Programming/Programmers_Utilities/000WQA.html.
If you use a Creative Labs sound card, or a sound card based on the ESS-1868 chip set, check out the Data-Acquisition and Real-Time Analysis shareware at www.daqarta.com. The software supplies basic scope and spectrum-analyzer functions, and includes synchronous signal averaging and advanced triggering options in its package.
heliso.tripod.com/download/download.htm You'll find many programs, including an FFT analyzer that works with your PC's soundcard. The software's functions include spectrum, spectrum-array, and digital-filtering functions. The site also includes other signal-processing and signal-analysis software.
www.microchip.com FilterLab, a free filter-design software package from Microchip Technology, can help you design Chebyshev, Bessel, and Butterworth active filters. The program also generates a Spice model of the designed filter.
www.sonnetusa.com/lite Offers a free electromagnetic simulation program (EM Lite) that offers some of the functions of the supplier's commercial software, the Sonnet em Suite. The free software provides for analysis of circuits with up to two metallization levels plus the ground plane, box sides and cover. Port terminations are uniformly 50 ohms. No complex terminations allowed.
www.intusoft.com/utilities.htm Lists several useful programs including an IBIS to SPICE converter. The software generates SPICE models from I/O Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) data-sheet files. The utilities page provides several helpful links to IBIS-related sites. You'll also find software on this page for a unit-conversion calculator.
www.taltech.com/cgi-bin/fs2k.cgi You'll find communication-port software, utilities, and bar-code-printing software at this site.
www.connel.com/freeware This site offers several useful PERL CGI scripts; an engineering unit converter, an economics calculator, and a fluid-flow calculator.
rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image A public-domain image-processing and image-analysis package that runs on Macintosh computers or on Unix-based computers. Developed at the National Institutes of Health.
www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/cards.html Microprocessor instruction-set cards for many old and new microprocessors. The site also provides other microprocessor-related links.
www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/alchemy.html Graphics software
www.32bit.com Look under the Utilities menu for many 32-bit shareware and freeware programs, plus graphics programs and files.
Did you uncover another worthy site? Let us know: tmw@cahners.com
To obtain the files from our site, you'll need a browser that supports FTP
(file-transfer protocol) operations. If you need FTP software, you can find a copy of the
popular FTP program, WS-FTP at www.ipswitch.com/junodj.
Each ZIP file in the list contains one or more compressed files. If you need ZIP software to extract files, you can obtain it from www.winzip.com or from www.pkware.com.
If you cannot download the files, just mail us a blank 3-1/2 inch, high-density
PC-formatted disk along with your name and mailing address. (Mail your disk to: Test & Measurement World, 275 Washington St., Newton, MA 02458.) Attach a label to the disk
that list the names of the ZIP files you want. We will copy the files onto the disk and
mail it to you. It usually takes us a week to ten days to return disks.
