A POWERFUL, INEXPENSIVE EXPERIMENT CONTROLLER OR IBM PC INTERFACE AND EXPERIMENT CONTROL LANGUAGE

A very powerful, but inexpensive, advanced technology (16 MHz 80C188EB) experiment controller is described. It can be programmed in either a BASIC-like (ECBASIC) or an ALGOL-like (ECL) procedure specification language. It provides 1-msec resolution, optional transparent total data logging, and is designed to function as a remote peripheral processor in a network with virtually any computer acting as the network supervisor (e.g., IBM compatible or Macintosh). Each serial port on the host computer can support up to 10 simultaneous experiments. The various optional I/O modules provide for opto-isolated normally open or normally closed switch operation input, high current output, as well as D/A and A/D functions. Our I/O modules can also be plugged directly into an IBM PC parallel port by using a small adaptor board. In this way, the advantages of using ECBASIC or ECL to control experiments are available to researchers who wish to simply interface their host computer directly to the apparatus in order to minimize expense.