JP4239626B2 - Measuring instrument control system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a measuring instrument control system, and more particularly, to an improvement of a measuring system configured to be controlled by a personal computer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, it is widely performed that a measuring instrument is connected to a personal computer via GPIB or the like and controlled by a program on the personal computer.
[0003]
However, in recent years, with the sophistication and complexity of the functions of measuring instruments, the number of instructions called communication commands required on the measuring instrument side is increasing. As a result, the number of pages such as instruction manuals for measuring instruments has increased, making it difficult to create a program for controlling a personal computer by a user of the measuring instrument.
[0004]
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of such a conventional measuring instrument control system. In the figure, a measuring instrument 1 is connected to a personal computer 3 via a GPIB (IEEE488.1) line 2, for example. When the user of the measuring instrument 1 controls the measuring instrument 1 with a personal computer, it reads the instruction manual as shown in FIG. 9 to find out the necessary commands from the communication commands specific to the measuring instrument model, and executes the program. I was making it.
[0005]
However, as described above, the number of communication commands is increasing due to the complexity of the function of the measuring instrument 1, and the IEEE488.2 standard generally has an instruction system based on the ASCII character string hierarchy, so the number of character strings increases. This increases the number of hierarchies and complicates user program creation.
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-10-187426
[0007]
Patent Document 1 relates to a program device that employs a program notation method with good visibility, but discloses an invention related to a system that controls a measuring instrument using GPIB. The explanation of the operation panel GUI for GPIB shown in FIG. 43 and FIG. 44 is described.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
[0009]
The present invention pays attention to these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a measuring instrument control system in which a user can easily create a measuring instrument control program.
[0010]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The invention of claim 1 which achieves such an object,
A measuring instrument control system configured such that a measuring instrument and a personal computer are connected via a communication line and the measuring instrument is controlled by the personal computer.
On the computer screen, an instruction list import execution button, an instruction reading start button, an instruction reading end button, a copy button, and a test execution button are displayed, and a list display list area, a reading instruction list area, and a test content list area are provided. Displayed,
By operating the command list fetch execution button of the personal computer, all control command information necessary for control by the personal computer from the measuring instrument is fetched into the personal computer via a communication line and listed in the list display list area. Displayed,
After the instrument is shifted to the instruction analysis processing mode by operating the instruction reading start button of the personal computer, the instruction setting by key operation is analyzed and converted into a communication instruction character string and stored in the output buffer. Send it to the computer,
The personal computer displays a communication command character string related to a key operation received from the measuring instrument in the read command list area,
When the copy button is operated in a state where a desired communication command character string is selected from the communication command character strings displayed in the read command list region, the selected communication command character string is displayed in the test content list region. Is displayed as a copy,
When the test execution button is operated while the selected communication command character string is displayed in the test content list area, the communication command character string displayed in the test content list area is transferred to the measuring instrument. Thus, processing of a predetermined test content is executed .
[0011]
Thereby, it is possible to grasp the contents of the command stored in the measuring instrument and the relationship between the key operation of the measuring instrument and the communication command on the screen of the personal computer . And the operation of the program created on the screen of the personal computer can be confirmed with the measuring instrument.
[0017]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Although the basic configuration is the same as that of the conventional FIG. 8, the user can easily create a program for controlling the measuring instrument by combining the firmware of the measuring instrument 1 and the dedicated software on the personal computer 3 side. That is, the control instruction information is stored in the measuring instrument 1, and the control instruction information can be created on the screen of the personal computer 3 by taking the control instruction information into the personal computer 3 with the dedicated software of the personal computer 3. It is a thing.
[0018]
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a display screen of a personal computer 3 for explaining the flow of creating a control program based on the present invention. On the screen of the personal computer 3, an instruction list fetch execution button 4, an instruction reading start button 5, an instruction reading end button 6, a copy button 7, and a test execution button 8 are displayed, a list display list 9, a reading instruction list 10, A test content list 11 is displayed.
[0019]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing when the user operates the instruction list fetch execution button 4 displayed on the screen of the personal computer 3. When the user operates the command list fetch execution button 4 displayed on the screen of the personal computer 3 (SP1), the measuring instrument 1 receives the command list fetch command (SP2). Then, the measuring instrument 1 prepares to transmit the information of all stored instructions as binary data (SP3), and when ready for transmission, transmits the instruction information to the personal computer 3 (SP4). . Upon receiving the command information (SP5), the personal computer 3 displays a list of control command information received from the measuring instrument 1 side in the list display list 9 on the display screen of the personal computer 3 as shown in FIG. 3 (SP6). Here, when the user clicks on each command displayed in the list display list 9, the individual detailed information such as the description of each command and the setting data information is displayed.
[0020]
As a result, it is possible to know at a glance what kind of instruction is in the measuring instrument to be controlled and what kind of contents the instruction gives, and there is no need to read the instruction manual as in the past.
[0021]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of instruction analysis processing after the control instruction information of the measuring instrument 1 is taken into the personal computer 3 by executing the procedure of FIG. In FIG. 4, when the user presses the command reading start button 5 displayed on the screen of the personal computer 3 (SP1), the measuring instrument 1 shifts to the command analysis processing mode (SP2). Instruction setting by key operation on the measuring instrument 1 after shifting to the instruction analysis processing mode is analyzed inside the measuring instrument 1 (SP3), converted into a communication instruction character string when the instruction is confirmed, and stored in the output buffer. (SP4).
[0022]
The personal computer 3 periodically receives the command (SP5) and transmits a command read to the measuring instrument 1 (SP6). The measuring instrument 1 transmits the contents of the output buffer to the personal computer 3 side when an instruction is read from the personal computer 3 (SP6). When the personal computer 3 receives the command sent from the measuring instrument 1 (SP7), it displays those commands in the read command list 10 on the display screen of the personal computer 3 as shown in FIG. 5 (SP8). After the steps SP5 to SP8 are repeatedly executed as many times as necessary, when the user presses the instruction reading end button 6 (SP9), the measuring instrument 1 again shifts to the instruction analysis processing mode (SP10).
[0023]
Since the read commands displayed in the read command list 10 are automatically converted into commands based on the actual key operation of the measuring instrument 1, the user can determine which key operation of the measuring instrument 1 becomes which communication command. You don't have to search each time.
[0024]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of test execution processing after the procedure of FIG. 4 is executed. In FIG. 6, when the user selects a desired read command group from the read command list 10 displayed on the screen of the personal computer 3 (SP1) and presses the copy button 7 (SP2), the selected read command group is selected. Is copied to the test content list 11. By pressing the test execution button 8 after copying to the test content list 11 in this way (SP3), the read command group copied to the test content list 11 is received by the measuring instrument 1 (SP4). And the measuring device 1 performs the process of a read command group sequentially (SP5).
[0025]
As a result, the operation of a series of programs created on the screen of the personal computer 3 by the user can be confirmed by operating the measuring instrument 1.
[0026]
In the above embodiment, the communication line is GPIB (IEEE488.1), but other lines such as RS232, USB (registered trademark), Ethernet (registered trademark) may be used.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a user can easily create a program for controlling a measuring instrument by editing while viewing the screen of the personal computer, such as a waveform measuring device, a data collecting device, and a recorder. It is suitable for various measuring instrument control systems to be controlled.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a display screen of a personal computer for explaining a flow of creating a control program based on the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing flow in the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a display screen of a personal computer related to the processing of FIG.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the present invention.
5 is a conceptual diagram of a display screen of a personal computer related to the process of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the present invention.
7 is a conceptual diagram of a display screen of a personal computer related to the process of FIG.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional measuring instrument control system.
FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram of conventional program creation.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Measuring instrument 2 Communication line 3 Personal computer 4 Instruction list acquisition execution button 5 Instruction reading start button 6 Instruction reading end button 7 Copy button 8 Test execution button 9 List display list 10 Reading instruction list 11 Test contents list

Claims (1)

A measuring instrument control system configured such that a measuring instrument and a personal computer are connected via a communication line and the measuring instrument is controlled by the personal computer.
On the computer screen, an instruction list import execution button, an instruction reading start button, an instruction reading end button, a copy button, and a test execution button are displayed, and a list display list area, a reading instruction list area, and a test content list area are provided. Displayed,
By operating the command list fetch execution button of the personal computer, all control command information necessary for control by the personal computer from the measuring instrument is fetched into the personal computer via a communication line and listed in the list display list area. Displayed,
After the instrument is shifted to the instruction analysis processing mode by operating the instruction reading start button of the personal computer, the instruction setting by key operation is analyzed and converted into a communication instruction character string and stored in the output buffer. Send it to the computer,
The personal computer displays a communication command character string related to a key operation received from the measuring instrument in the read command list area,
When the copy button is operated in a state where a desired communication command character string is selected from the communication command character strings displayed in the read command list region, the selected communication command character string is displayed in the test content list region. Is displayed as a copy,
When the test execution button is operated while the selected communication command character string is displayed in the test content list area, the communication command character string displayed in the test content list area is transferred to the measuring instrument. A measuring instrument control system characterized in that processing of predetermined test contents is executed .

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