Version 0.9.8.1 has been released. This fixes:

• Bugfix: IFile output had wrong crankangle abscissa
• Output extended channel names in IFile if necessary
• Only use extended channel name when loading IFile if less than 64 characters
• Use default engine speed if no engine speed calculated

Version 0.9.8 has been released. The highlights include:

• Use of -360 to 360 degree nomenclature (was previously 0 to 720 degrees) - IMPORTANT: Existing configuration files will need any angular references offset to the new nomenclature
• Automatic determination of start of combustion channels
• Cylinder pressure smoothing for pressure rise rate calcs
• Calculated second order polynomial for TDC determination
• 98% burn angle calculated correctly
• Improvements to heat release calculations
• General robustness improvements
• Minimum abscissa resolution now unlimited (was fixed at 0.05 degrees)
• Cylinder volume calculation improvements with offset wrist pin
• Improved cylinder pressure offset correction
• Convert AVL IFile to MATLAB using command line switch
• Improvements to IFile support:
  • Supports interleaved channel data
  • Recognises DISI engine type
  • Supports any abscissa resolution
  • Robustness improvements against invalid files
  • Automatically converts from psi, kPa, Pa or MPa measurements to bar
  • Improved pressure offset support
  • Supports long channel names
• Supports stdin input in addition to configuration files

Much appreciation to all those providing valuable feedback, bug reports and improvements especially Junghwan Kim, Peter Van Wieren, Erik Doosje, Julien Vanier and Eric Gingrich.

Downloads:

• Source code: catool-0.9.8.1-src.zip MD5: ee735023513747a34f9e26b64a3f2313
• Windows 32-bit binary: catool-0.9.8.1-win32.zip MD5: ca1c2f27c9f22d3653d141e1f6f8fada

Brown, B. R., "Combustion Data Acquisition and Analysis," M.Eng. Automotive Engineering Thesis, Loughborough University, 2001. [1.21MB]

catool can be used to convert raw combustion data in AVL IFile format for later analysis in The MathWorks' MATLAB or GNU Octave.

Step-by-step:

1) Create a directory to store the catool files such as 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\Rnnnn\toolbox\catool'. When Rnnnn is the MATLAB version, for example R2007b.

2) Copy the catool.exe and pthreadGC2.dll files and load_ifile.m script to the above directory.

3) Add the above path: (at MATLAB prompt) addpath('C:\Program Files\MATLAB\Rnnnn\toolbox\catool')

4) Load the data: (at MATLAB prompt) ifile = load_ifile('avl_ifile.001',1)

5) Plot the data: (at MATLAB prompt) plot(ifile.CYLPR1.axis,ifile.CYLPR1.data)