Course detail

Controlling the Experiment by PC

FSI-9PEXAcad. year: 2024/2025

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

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

Ing. Zdeněk Nováček, Ph.D.

Department

Institute of Physical Engineering (ÚFI)

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.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Bishop, R.H.: LabWIEW Student Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall 2007 (EN)
National Instruments. Austin, TX, USA. Technical support. http://www.ni.com/cs-cz/support.html . (EN)
Tan, L; Diang, J.: Digital Signal Processing. Academic Press, 2019 (EN)

Recommended reading

DEWETRON GmbH catalogs and technical brochures. https://pdf.directindustry.com/pdf/dewetron-gmbh-25786.html (EN)
Kainka B., Berndt H.-J.: Využití rozhraní PC pod Windows. Nakladatelství HEL, Ostrava, 2000. (CS)
Staudenmaier,H.M.: Physics Experiments Using PCs. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1995 (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme D-ENE-P Doctoral 1 year of study, winter semester, recommended course
  • Programme D-ENE-K Doctoral 1 year of study, winter semester, recommended course

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

20 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Ing. Zdeněk Nováček, Ph.D.

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.