Sclentlflc Routlnes Dlskelie: Laboratory Automation Uslng t h e IBM PC Stephen C. Gates with Jordan Becker Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ 06532
Hardware:
IBM PC or compatible board for AID, DIA, and digital 110 board for IEEE-488 (GPIB) 50 BASIC source proComponents: grams (BASICA), seven Assembly language routines, and one data file, on a 360 K disk, correlated with chapters in the text. Level and Subject: College level, computer interfacing and laboratory automation. Cost: $27 for book and disk
Summary Ratlngs: catway Oood Ease of Use: Subject Maner Content: Good Pedagogic Value: Excellent Student Reaction: Good The Scientific RoutinesDiskette provides 57 source programs that are intended to illustrate specific topics discussed in the Gates and Beeker text (1). [Editor's note: see review in this issue.1 The oroerams and .. the test areconcerned with computer interfacing and lalroratury automation, tmadly but quite specifically. The didk includes 50
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BASIC source programs (in BASICA) and seven Assembly language routines (together with one data file). Programs are provided in relation to text chapters 2-12,14, and 15. Onlv the Introduction. Concludine Rema&, and LAN chapters are without an example program. The programs (and text) are aimed a t anyone who "would like to learn both the hardware and software aspects of laboratory automation" (2).The author speculates that the reader is "probably about to embark on a project in interfacing s scientific or industrial instrument to a comouter" (2). . . This intendpd audience is hroad in one sense. It includes many rhemirts, chemistry instnrrtors, and chemistry students. However, it includes users in many other areas as well, such as computer science, physics, and biology. Chapter 1 mentions a polarograph and a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, hut without an example program. Chemistry and related terms do not appear in the index of the hook. The programs may be regarded as a stimulating set of examples and software building blocks, which the user can apply and adapt to the computer rnterfaring tasks at hand. The main prerequisites are some familiarity with BASIC (and, rdeally, assembly language,, together with a willingness tg, roll up the sleews and get involved m the sprcifirs of interfacing hardware and related programming. A potential user who expects to find a highlevel integratedpackage, replete with pull down menus and with no need for programming, will he thoroughly disappointed and should look somewhere else. Within the undergraduate chemistry program of a college or university, these pro~
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grams may be quite useful in a physical chemistry laboratory, in an instrumental analysis course, and in student-faculty research. Documentation is provided by the Gates and Decker test itself. Program listings for 39oftheBASlCprogramaand for fiveofthe assembly language programs are included in the text, a t the places where they are discussed. Appendix B indexes these 44 programs in relation to the text, and indicates changes that should be made in three of them. The remaining 11 BASIC programs and two assembly language programs are similar to programs listed in the text, usinga different hardware hoard, and are cross referenced in Appendix B as well. The programs themselves provide a considerable amount of documentation through remarks which they contain. Since the source code for each program is provided as an ASCII file on the disk, these remarks are readily available. In order to use mast of the programs, certain interfacing hardware must be installed in the computer. Many of the programs are roncerned with analog to d i g i d conwrsion (A/D),digital toanalog conrersmt rD A), or with dieital inouc,outout tdieital 1/01. The " programs are specifically designed to work with one of two hardware hoards of this type. One is the Data Translation DT2801 analog and digital 110 board (3). A recent catalog lists a price of $995 for the DT2801 board (4). The second hoard for which programs are provided is the IBM Personal Cornouter Data Acauisition and Control ~ d a o t e (DACAI r. was available re. (5L'~his .. cently at s reduced p n r r of $195 ( 6 ) .Two programs deal with the IEEE-488 interface bus tCPIB), originally developed by Hew(Continued on page A1461
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Revlewer
Computer Learning Packages Stephen C. Gates with Jordan Becker, Scientific Routines Diskettes: Laboratory Automation Using t h e IBM PC E d w h E. Tucker, SEQS 3.0 Student Version: Simultaneous Equation Solver Books Stephen C. Gates with Jordan Becker, Laboratory Automation Using the IBM PC John M. Walker and Michael Cox, The Language of Biotechnology: .. A Dictionary of Terms Cornelia A. Taimadge, editor, College Chemistry Faculties, Eighth Edition Titles of Interest New Volumes in Continuing Series Monographs Textbook Announcements
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Journal
of Chemical Education
Arien Viste
A144
K. E. Dierenfeldt
A149
Frederic C. Laquer Henry L. Laquer George B. Kauffman
A146 A146 A150
Kauffman
A151
George B.
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lett-Packard. These programs use the IBM GPIB adapter, with National Instruments software, and interact with two HewlettPackard 3478A digital voltmeters (7).The National Instruments GPIB-PC11 IEEE488 Interface with NI-488 software recently coat .. $R96 18).
'I'hu.; the wtal cost of the hardware uaed w t h these programs ISrather~LIb3tantid.In each rase, other brands are avadable, in addirron to those directly supported by the Gates software. It would seem foolish to select the hardware components solely hecause of compatibility with the Gates programs. Thus, unless the user's budget is unusually plush, the Gates software is fully useful only if there are other grounds for purchasing the hardware components for which this software has been specifically designed. This review places primary emphasis on the Gates programs which deal with analog to digital conversion (AD), digital to analog conversion (DIA), and digital inputloutput (digital 110). These are aspects of computer interfacing which are particularly common in the chemistry Laboratory. The particular programs selected utilize the IBM DACA hoard. These are programs PROGFLhas through PROGFlO.bas, PROGFlZ.bas, PROGFll.asm, and PROGFl3.asm. These 13 programs are similar to another 13 programs which work with the Data Translation DT2801 analog and digital 110 hoard (5).
In testing the software, the IBM DACA board was used in an IBM PCIAT computer. The DACA hoard was configured with i 5 V as the range for A D and DIA conversion. In digital 110, +5V is binary 1and OV is binary 0. Following the recommendation of Gates, the Micrwoft QuickBASIC environment (version 4.5) was used with the BASIC programs, rather than the original BASICA (9).A small glitch arises from the use of the variable SELECT% in the Gates BASICA programs, which conflicts with the use of SELECT as a reserved word in QuickBASIC. However consistent renaming otthe variable te.g. w SFI.ECT09d readily takes carc of the problenl. The two assembly language programs were assembled using the Micrwoft Macro Assembler (version 5.1). I t is necessary to compile PROGFlO.has and to link it with the object file from PROGFlLasm, in order to carry out timed data collection (AD) using an assembly language routine. Similarly, it is necessary to compile PROGF12,has and to link it with the object file from PROGFl3.asm, in order to carry out timed data collection (AD) using an assembly language routine, together with signal averaging. Programs PROGFlO.has and PROGF12,bas include remarks suggesting compile and link procedures, though not for Microsoft QuiekBASIC. A fairly hardy and adventuresome user is assumed. These programs were used with a group of students in a laboratory session of Physical Chemistry 11. The students were junior chemistry majors and were fairly familiar with other t w e s of comnuter work on IBM and Compaq personal computers. Several of the students had cnrried data aeouisi~out a ~ ~ tion project the previous semester, in which a MetraByte hoard was used with LahTech
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Journal of Chemical Education
Notebook software o n e Compaq 386s computer, inorder tuaequire electrode potential data during an wrillating reaction. During the review process, a few small modifications were made in several programs before they were used by students. Besides repairing the SELECT% conflict, straightforward additions were made to some programs to allow them to save acquired data in a data file on disk. With two of the digital I10 programs, an addition was made to provide a needed +5V signal a t a connecur, in order to avoid having to pro. LED invide a reparate power supply. TWI, dicator liahrs and a switch were also urovided. The students and the reviewer found that these programs worked very effectively with A D , DIA, and digital VO. In testing programs PROGF4, PROGF5, and PROGF8 through PROGF13, a versatile triangle wave generator was used as the signal source for AD (10). In several cases the acquired data were saved to a disk file, and were suhsequently read into Sigma Plot software and plotted appropriately. Being able to generate a hard copy plot added to the concreteness and success of the student work. DIA output from programs PROGF1, PROGF2, PROGF3, and PROGFB was ohserved with a multimeter or with a Tektronix oscilloscope. Digital I10 in programs PROGFG, PROGF7, and PROGF9 utilized LED indicators and a toeele switch. The studentukrote a lab report on their work with the software, including s diaeusahm and evaluation ot'it. They uaed the programs quite successfully, studied the program listings, and appropriately identified particular lines in the BASIC programs which worked directly with the DACA hoard. They made appropriate suggestions for lab work in which this software mieht be used, including a redor titration curve, and monitoring of electrode potential^ in an orcillating reaction. Some word$ and phrases which students used in evaluating the software included: useful, straightforward, quite satisfactory, easy to use, and outstanding. Stephen C. Gates is a staff member a t the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, NY),and is in a good position to write authoritatively concerning the IBM PC computer, IBM DACA board, and related programming and software. He has provided a real service in supplying these programs, which serve asa stimulating aet of examples and software building blocks, in order to assist the user in computer interfacing tasks. Users who are willing to get directly involved with hardware and related programming should find the Gates programs a ai~nifirantrerource, which can help them in their interfacing work. Casual users ~robablvwill be disapuointed. For active &en, the Gates programs are quite valuable: good to excellent. ~~~~~
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References Stephen C. with Becker. Jordan. Labomtory Automation UBing the IRMPC; Prentiee-Hall: Englewood Cliffs. NJ, 1989. 2. Refl,pix. 3. Ref1.p 17.43. 1. 1990 Dofo Aequiaifion Handbook; Data Trsnalstion: Marlhoro, MA, 1990: p 3-28.14-33. 5 . Refl,p3lO. ~ ~ ~ 6.~Mendeleon Eleetronies. 340 E. First St., Dayton, OH 45402. Telephone (8W) 422~3525. 7. Ref 1, Chapter 6. 1. Gates.
8. IEEE-486 Control. Data AequisilionondAnolys~/or Your Computer: NationalInstrum~nta:Austin, TX, 1988;p 1-6. 9. Ref I. p r. 10. Triangle wave generator, suitable for cyclic uoltsmmefry, eonstmcted by Duane Weishsar, Augvsfans College (SD).
Arlen Viste Augustana College Sioux Falls. SD 57197 Laboratory Automation using the IBM PC Stephen C. Gates with Jordan Becker. Prentlce-Hall. Englewood Cliffs. NJ 07632. 1989.321 pp. Instrumentation should be no more than a sideline far most researchers. but we are at
a competitive drsadvantage if our apparatus dom not keep up with the rapid and radical technological changes that are taking place. There has been a long line of hooks that have educated or re-educated the nonspecialist in the latest instrumentation technology, starting with Mriller, Garman, and Droz'sEmerirnentol Electronics in the Late 40.; to ~ a l m s t a d et t al Electronics ond Instrumenrarivnfur Scirntiala in the60's and 70's. Now Gatesand Becker have made cheir contribution to help us gather more information from our instruments, in less time and with a lower likelihood of human error, by interfacing them to the ubiquitous IBM Personal Computer (PC) or its clone. Coordinated control of instrumentation, data reduction, and display or presentation of useful information is the order of the day. The authors explain how to do this by dividing their hook into three main parts: "Data Collection and Instrument Control", "Data Analysis", and "Advanced Techniques". They assume that the reader hasonly a rudimentary knowledge of PC operation and of the BASIC language and then proceed to teach both the hardware and software aspects of laboratory automation. After a brief introductory chapter, Gates discusses "Digital to Analog Conversion" in Chapter 2. He covers the theory of resistorladder trpe DIA's, gives practical advice on the selection of s DIA device, and provides three ora=ammine examoles for the Data ~ r a n s i n t i h~ ~ 2 B i''~ingle il Board Analog and Digital 110 System". Throughout the book, the programs go from the simple to the more complex, and significant programming concepts are examined in detail. The programs build on each other and are written in standard BASIC (or BASICA), hut in structured form. with clear indentine. ". amole comments.~.~~ obvious subroutines and no GOTO's. This enables the reader to conrentrate on new secciona of code and also eases translation of the routines into other languages. Thus the first example outputs a single measurement, (correctly called a datum for the singular), the next program generates a ramp voltage, and the third a waveform far disolavan an oseilloscooe. The omgrams are also provided on a s 1 ,in.drsk, and users with the IBM DACA (Data Acquisition and Control Adapter) will find parallel programs cross referenced in Appendix B.2 and on the disk. Owners of other hardware may have to translate hardware-specific instructions, a comparatively minor effort. In Chapter 3, the authors lookat analog to digital ( A D ) conversion. They present
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