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Free Instrument Control Software - Clairsoft TestPad
Andrei Shirobokov
Member
01-15-2004 12:07 PM
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Clairsoft TestPad Development Studio v1.00 can be used as an
Instrument Control software tool within LabView. No more instrument
drivers required to control any type of test instrument or UUT wich
uses text message-based communication over GPIB, RS-232, TCP/IP or USB
(based on the VISA-COM run-time).
TestPad gives you unique capabilities in Instrument Control in terms
of that you don't need a LabView driver to control test instruments or
UUTs within your LabView applications, you also don't need to write
any single line of code for interface and/or instrument configuration
& communication. You simply teach TestPad how to generate a sending
message using provided input parameters and how to parse the device
response back into a usable data format. The process of interactively
defining rules for generating/parsing messages (device operations)
requires no programming and in many cases no other definitions other
then simply typing a sending message and selecting/marking only the
data you need from the device response. As a result of interactively
defining these device operations, TestPad dynamically
generates(compiles) an actual "device driver" implemented as a COM
server DLL which can be used via LabView's ActiveX communication
functions (by adding reference to "Clairsoft Device
1.0 Type Library"). This means that an actual
instrument programming model (properties and methods) will be
available to you within an application.
Instrument interchangability became also available via firstly,
TestPad GUI-based instrument connection configuration (GPIB, Serial,
TCP/IP, USB - based on VISA-COM) and secondly, redefinition of parsing
rules for another instrument according to the defined COM interface.
This built-in TestPad functionality gives you ability to write your
LabView code irrespective of particular interface/instrument. You just
specify required instrument properties & methods, and when you decide
which instrument to use you interactively configure it's
instrumentation interface and parsing rules according to these
properties & methods used by your application. This approach gives the
highest possible Instrument Interchangeability model which is much
simpler for development process and is more flexible than using
LabView, VXI plug&play or IVI drivers, where you have to use the
driver's API in the code and can interchange instruments only across
similar instrument models or types.
TestPad in comparison with the LabView Instrument I/O Assistant offers
the following :-
- it has much more flexible message parsing definition rules based on
XML Schema language;
- it generates(compiles) a driver DLL file while keeping a "source"
parsing rules available for further modifications, rather then
generating an unmaintable code;
- it hides all the instrumentation interface communication (behind a
connection logical name) by GUI-based configuration attributes,
thereby you may simply change interface, for example from GPIB to
TCP-IP/Telnet, without any code modification;
- the TestPad generated instrument driver can be also used in other
development environments, such as NI Measurement Studio, VC++, VB,
Delphi, Tcl/Tk, MATLAB, JScript, VBScript, Perl and more (based on
COM/.NET interfaces), which became especially valuable in the projects
involving more languages then LabView only.
So, to sum up, TestPad offers an actual Instrument Abstraction
development model.
TestPad also implements such functionality as saving test results into
the database or spreadsheet file for futher processing, supporting I/O
communication protocols such as Telnet over TCP/IP, instrument
simulation capabilities, test data validation, tracing & logging.
You may want to download the Multimedia TestPad Product Demonstration
(3 min) from http://www.clairsoft.com (TestPad v1.00 is also available
for free download).
TestPad System Requirements:
- Windows 2000/XP.
- Run-time VISA-COM I/O library, such as NI VISA 3.x.
Should you have any questions regarding to the TestPad please feel
free to send an email to andrei@clairsoft.com.
Sincerely,
Andrei Shirobokov
Software Architect, Clairsoft
Email: andrei@clairsoft.com
Web: http://www.clairsoft.com
Instrument Control software tool within LabView. No more instrument
drivers required to control any type of test instrument or UUT wich
uses text message-based communication over GPIB, RS-232, TCP/IP or USB
(based on the VISA-COM run-time).
TestPad gives you unique capabilities in Instrument Control in terms
of that you don't need a LabView driver to control test instruments or
UUTs within your LabView applications, you also don't need to write
any single line of code for interface and/or instrument configuration
& communication. You simply teach TestPad how to generate a sending
message using provided input parameters and how to parse the device
response back into a usable data format. The process of interactively
defining rules for generating/parsing messages (device operations)
requires no programming and in many cases no other definitions other
then simply typing a sending message and selecting/marking only the
data you need from the device response. As a result of interactively
defining these device operations, TestPad dynamically
generates(compiles) an actual "device driver" implemented as a COM
server DLL which can be used via LabView's ActiveX communication
functions (by adding reference to "Clairsoft Device
instrument programming model (properties and methods) will be
available to you within an application.
Instrument interchangability became also available via firstly,
TestPad GUI-based instrument connection configuration (GPIB, Serial,
TCP/IP, USB - based on VISA-COM) and secondly, redefinition of parsing
rules for another instrument according to the defined COM interface.
This built-in TestPad functionality gives you ability to write your
LabView code irrespective of particular interface/instrument. You just
specify required instrument properties & methods, and when you decide
which instrument to use you interactively configure it's
instrumentation interface and parsing rules according to these
properties & methods used by your application. This approach gives the
highest possible Instrument Interchangeability model which is much
simpler for development process and is more flexible than using
LabView, VXI plug&play or IVI drivers, where you have to use the
driver's API in the code and can interchange instruments only across
similar instrument models or types.
TestPad in comparison with the LabView Instrument I/O Assistant offers
the following :-
- it has much more flexible message parsing definition rules based on
XML Schema language;
- it generates(compiles) a driver DLL file while keeping a "source"
parsing rules available for further modifications, rather then
generating an unmaintable code;
- it hides all the instrumentation interface communication (behind a
connection logical name) by GUI-based configuration attributes,
thereby you may simply change interface, for example from GPIB to
TCP-IP/Telnet, without any code modification;
- the TestPad generated instrument driver can be also used in other
development environments, such as NI Measurement Studio, VC++, VB,
Delphi, Tcl/Tk, MATLAB, JScript, VBScript, Perl and more (based on
COM/.NET interfaces), which became especially valuable in the projects
involving more languages then LabView only.
So, to sum up, TestPad offers an actual Instrument Abstraction
development model.
TestPad also implements such functionality as saving test results into
the database or spreadsheet file for futher processing, supporting I/O
communication protocols such as Telnet over TCP/IP, instrument
simulation capabilities, test data validation, tracing & logging.
You may want to download the Multimedia TestPad Product Demonstration
(3 min) from http://www.clairsoft.com (TestPad v1.00 is also available
for free download).
TestPad System Requirements:
- Windows 2000/XP.
- Run-time VISA-COM I/O library, such as NI VISA 3.x.
Should you have any questions regarding to the TestPad please feel
free to send an email to andrei@clairsoft.com.
Sincerely,
Andrei Shirobokov
Software Architect, Clairsoft
Email: andrei@clairsoft.com
Web: http://www.clairsoft.com
