Course detail
Controlling the Experiment by PC
FSI-9PEX Acad. year: 2023/2024 Winter semester
The course is primarily devoted to hardware problems of the microcomputer application in experiments and to special software products for controlling the devices and virtual instrumentation. In lectures and laboratory measurements students will get acquainted with ports of the microcomputer (COM), standard interfaces (GPIB, USB, FireWire, Ethernet), measurement boards and platforms. Main accent is put on the practical application of new trends in design and performing the experiment. For the design and realization of the experiments students will predominately use the multifunction measurement boards and LabVIEW programming environment. In the frame of projects students can use also Matlab and Simulink.
Language of instruction
Czech
Supervisor
Department
Entry knowledge
Decimal, binary and hexadecimal number system. Fundamentals of the programming in a programming language (Pascal, Visual Basic, C). PC hardware.
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Handing over reports from 2 labs individually selected measurement tasks. Working-out the individual project.
A teacher checks the attendance on practical measurements stated in the timetable. The form and the date of the compensation of missed lessons are specified by the teacher.
Aims
The aim of the course is to make students acquainted with basic elements of the computer-controlled experiment. After completing the course students should be able to interconnect the instrument and PC through a standard interface and control these instruments by standard programming tools. We will also pay attention to utilization of the serial port of the PC and Digital I/O signals of measurement boards for generation and detection of binary signals.
Performance of the computer-controlled experiment with application of standard interfaces and programming tools. More detailed knowledge of RS232, GPIB and USB will enable students to solve some particular tasks. Realization of simple virtual instruments in the LabVIEW environment.
The study programmes with the given course
Programme D-ENE-K: Power Engineering, Doctoral, recommended course
Programme D-ENE-P: Power Engineering, Doctoral, recommended course
Type of course unit
Lecture
20 hours, optionally
Syllabus
1. Common principles for application of a computer in the experiment. Draft of the experiment, stimulation of the system, measurement and the record of the response.
2. Technical means. D/A and A/D converter, multiplexer, counter/timer, FPGA. PC boards and platforms for communication with real environment.
3. Communication between PC and device. Serial and parallel transition of the data. Signals and communication in RS232.
4. Standardized busses, function, applied systems. Signals and communication in GPIB (IEEE-488), USB, FireWire (IEEE-1394), Ethernet.
5. Controlling software for the experiment, features and characteristics. Traditional and virtual instruments.
6. LabVIEW. Components of the system, programming principles, virtual instrumentation.
Measurements:
1. Programming of the RS232, handling of the multifunction board digital I/O lines in LabVIEW environment.
2. Measuring system with multifunction measurement board, measurement with multi-meter Metex.
a) Time constant of thermo transducer.
b) Characteristics of photodiode.
c) Charging of the condenser.
3. DAQ and sound boards for signal analysis in LabVIEW. Measurement of the acoustic characteristics of cavity resonators.
4. Measurement of the electric motor vibrations.
5. Measurement with tensometers.
Individual project.