Alicat Scientific, Inc.
7641 N Business Park Drive
Tucson, Arizona 85743
USA
Alicat.com
Notice: Alicat Scientific, Inc. reserves the right to make any changes and improvements to the products described in this manual at any time and without notice. This manual is copyrighted. This document may not, in whole or in part, be copied, reproduced, translated, or converted to any electronic medium or machine readable form, for commercial purposes, without prior written consent from the copyright holder.
Note: Although we provide assistance on Alicat Scientific products both personally and through our literature, it is the complete responsibility of the user to determine the suitability of any product to their application.
The manufacturer does not warrant or assume responsibility for the use of its products in life support applications or systems.
FormoreinformationregardingthisoranyAlicatproduct,please contact us at:
Alicat Scientific, Inc
7641 N Business Park Drive
Tucson, Arizona 85743
USA
Ph: 520-290-6060 888-290-6060 Fax: 520-290-0109
email: info@alicatscientific.com Web site: www.alicatscientific.com
01/08/2013 Rev.2 DOC-FVISIONSCMAN
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Table of Contents |
|
Welcome to Flow Vision™ SC |
5 |
System Requirements |
5 |
Section 1 - Getting Started |
6 |
Installing the Software |
6 |
Launching Flow Vision™ SC |
9 |
Section 2 - Setting up Flow Vision™ SC |
10 |
Registering Flow Vision™ SC |
10 |
Flow Vision™ SC Menu and Menu functions |
10 |
File Menu |
11 |
Properties Menu |
11 |
Polling Menu |
12 |
View Menu |
12 |
Window Menu |
12 |
Macro Menu |
12 |
Help Menu |
12 |
Flow Vision™ SC Screen Layout |
13 |
Tabs |
13 |
Moving & Docking Modules in the Flow Vision™ Window |
14 |
Section 3 - Communicating with a Device |
15 |
Connecting To An Instrument And Receiving Data |
15 |
Adding a Device to a Known COM Port |
15 |
Searching for Devices |
16 |
Opening the Device Window |
17 |
Display Tab |
17 |
General Tab |
18 |
Gas Select™ |
18 |
Averaging |
18 |
Tare |
19 |
Control Tab (Controllers only) |
19 |
Control Loop |
19 |
Valve Tuning |
20 |
Valve Offset |
20 |
Info Tab |
20 |
Polling a Device |
21 |
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Table of Contents |
|
Removing a Device |
21 |
Setting Software Alarms |
21 |
Creating Custom Modifiers |
22 |
Section 4 – Optional Modules |
23 |
Data Logs |
23 |
Splitting Data Files |
25 |
Starting and Stopping Data Logs |
25 |
Charts |
27 |
Creating Charts |
27 |
Charting |
29 |
Scripts |
30 |
Descriptions of Simple Script Commands |
31 |
Write Address |
31 |
Change Set-point (Scale Units) |
31 |
Change Set-point (% of Full Scale) |
31 |
Tare |
31 |
Reset Total |
31 |
Sample Script |
32 |
Running the Script |
33 |
Terminals |
34 |
Uninstalling Flow Vision™ SC |
35 |
Troubleshooting and FAQs |
36 |
Contact Information |
37 |
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Welcome to Flow Vision™ SC
Flow Vision™ SC is a graphic based software package that allows you to operate any Alicat flow or pressure instrument via a graphical user interface.
Flow Vision™ SC lets you: access information from your Alicat instruments; make changes in commands to those instruments; monitor performance; log data; chart data; and communicate directly with the unit via a terminal window.
If you have used earlier versions of Alicat Scientific’s Flow Vision™ software, we are sure you will find many new and improved functions in this latest version: Flow Vision™ SC.
Note: Identifiers and scripts from earlier versions of Flow Vision™ are not recognized by Flow Vision™ SC.
System Requirements
•Microsoft® Windows® XP® or Microsoft® VISTA®, Windows® 7
•Microsoft® .NET Framework Version 3.0
(A copy of Microsoft® .NET Framework can be downloaded at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Familyd=262D25E3- F589=4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en)
•18 MB hard disk space
•Available COM port that supports 19200 baud communications*
* Note: Some laptops are not equipped with serial ports. A virtual serial port can be created using a USB to Serial adapter.
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Section 1 - Getting Started
In this section you will learn about:
•How to install Flow Vision™ SC to your computer
•How to start using Flow Vision™ SC
Installing the Software
In order to begin using the Flow Vision™ SC software, you will need to install the software onto the computer to which you plan to connect your Alicat flow or pressure instrument.
To install the software, place your original Flow Vision™ SC CD into the CD or DVD drive on your computer or laptop. If your computer does not have a CD or DVD drive installed, please contact the vendor from whom you purchased the computer, the manufacturer of the computer or your company’s computer technician.
Once you have placed the CD into the computer’s drive, you should hear some noise from the computer’s drive. In a moment, you will see the installation screen on your monitor:
To continue, choose the button marked “Next >”.
Upon clicking “Next” the End User License Agreement will be shown.
PleasereadtheAgreementcarefullyandifyouagreetothetermslisted,usethe mouse pointer to place a check mark in the box next to the sentence indicating that you agree to the End User License Agreement. After you have done that you can click the “Next” button to continue with the software installation. If you do not agree to the terms listed, cancel the installation, remove the CD from your computer and contact your software vendor to arrange returning the software for a refund.
You can abort the installation at any time by choosing the button marked “Cancel” or revert to the previous step by choosing the button marked “Back”.
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The next screen will ask into which directory you would like to install the Flow Vision™ SC software.
By default, the program will create a program folder and subfolder in the “Program Files” folder in your main drive directory. This location is suitable for most users. If you would like to install Flow Vision™ SC into a different location, you can manually enter the location’s address in the space provided or you can choose the button marked “Browse” and select the appropriate directory.
If you are using a computer at your company and are unsure of the appropriate location for installation, please request assistance from your company’s IT department.
You can review the amount of space required on your computer to install Flow Vision™ SC by choosing the button marked “Disk Cost”.
A window will appear showing available drives in the computer, the size of each drive, how much space is available on each drive, the space required for Flow Vision™ SC, and the amount of space that will be available after Flow Vision™ SC is installed.
This allows you to select the most appropriate location for Flow Vision™ SC to be installed based on drive space constraints.
To exit this screen and continue with the installation process, select the button marked “OK”.
You will also be asked if you would like to install Flow Vision™ SC for yourself only or for anyone who uses the computer. Flow Vision™ SC’s operation will not be affected in any way by this selection. Once you have made your selections, click the button marked “Next”.
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The following screen will inform you that Flow Vision™ SC is ready to be installed. You can take this opportunity to go back and make changes or to cancel the installation.
If you are satisfied with your choices, you can continue with the installation by choosing the button marked “Next”.
You will not see an installation screen with a progress bar visually indicating the progress of the installation of Flow Vision™ SC onto your computer.
Do not turn off or restart the computer during the installation process.
Turning off or restarting the computer during this process will cause Flow Vision™ SC to not install properly and possibly cause damage to your computer.
When the installation process is complete, a screen will appear indicating that Flow Vision™ SC has been successfully installed on your computer. To exit this screen and the Flow Vision™ SC installation process, select the button marked “Close”.
Once you have selected “Close”, the installation screen will disappear from your screen.
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You can now remove the Flow Vision™ SC CD from your computer. You will no longer need the Flow Vision™ SC CD to run the software.
BesuretokeeptheFlowVision™SCCDandthecasewiththeRegistration Key Label in a safe place in the event you need to reinstall the software.
Launching Flow Vision™ SC
With Flow Vision™ SC installed to your computer, you can now begin using the Flow Vision™ SC program.
In order to begin you must first start the program.
To start the program you will need to select the Flow Vision™ SC program shortcut from the Start Menu.
>>Start Menu>Alicat Scientific>Flow Vision
Once you have selected the Flow Vision™ SC shortcut from the Start Menu, the program will begin.
After registration, the application will gather information about your system. Specifically, Flow Vision™ SC probes your computer for available COM ports. ThisprocessonlyoccursonthefirstlaunchofFlowVision™SC.Allsubsequent launches will load more quickly.
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Section 2 - Setting up Flow Vision™ SC
In this section you will learn about:
•Registering Flow Vision™ SC
•Flow Vision™ SC Menu and Menu functions
•Flow Vision™ SC screen layout
Registering Flow Vision™ SC
Before Flow Vision™ SC will launch, it needs to be registered. A registration key label is affixed to the CD case in which the Flow Vision™ SC CD is stored.
Please enter the name and registration key from the registration key label in the appropriate fields. After successful registration, the application will launch.
Flow Vision™ SC Menu and Menu functions
When you start Flow Vision™ SC for the first time you will see this screen:
Along the top of the screen you will find the menu functions: File; Edit; Polling; View; Window; Macros and Help.
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To access a menu, place your mouse cursor over the desired menu and click the left mouse button.
To select a function from the menu point the mouse arrow to the desired function and once it is highlighted, click the left mouse key.
Explanations of each menu and its sub-functions follow.
File Menu
The file menu allows you to exit the program.
Edit Menu
Theeditmenuallowsyoutoaccessthe“Properties”sectionofFlowVision™SC. In this section, you can make changes as to how Flow Vision™ SC functions.
The polling rate is the time interval for the software to take data from the instrument, measured in milliseconds.
Increasing the polling rate (lengthening the time interval) will reduce the frequency at which data is taken from the instrument by the software.
Conversely, decreasing the polling rate (shortening the time interval) will increase the frequency at which data is taken from the instrument by the software.
The “View trace/debug information” option will allow you to view in-depth information about the application.
The options on the “Appearance” tab allow you to modify the way Flow Vision™ SC looks, including background color and image.
The “Updates” tab is used to modify the Flow Vision™ SC updating settings. You can disable automatic updates on this tab.
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Polling Menu
Polling is the term used to describe communicating with the instrument. The Polling Menu will allow you to initialize or terminate polling via the software.
To initialize polling select “Start Polling” > “All” and to terminate polling select “Stop Polling” > “All”.
View Menu
The View Menu allows you to choose how the main screen will appear when you start the program. Flow Vision™ SC is a modular program and each function of the software is represented by a module. The View Menu lets you select which modules will be available when the program starts. Modules are explained in detail later in this manual.
The View Menu also allows you to save variations of screen layouts in the event multiple users have different preferences or you have different requirements at different times. You can save and load modules as you require via the View Menu.
Window Menu
The Window Menu allows you to arrange open windows in a specific way. The formats are Cascade, Tile Horizontally, Tile Vertically and Icon.
Macro Menu
The Macro Menu allows you to store groups of windows that are launched together. Saved window macros are launched through the Macro Menu item.
Help Menu
The Help Menu contains documentation that will answer questions about the software and how it is used. You can access Flow Vision™ SC version information by selecting the “About” tab.
The “Register” tab will allow you to enter a CD Key if your CD Key has been compromised or if you receive a new CD Key from the software vendor.
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