Alicat Scientific SC Operating Manual

Alicat Scientic, Inc.

7641 N Business Park Drive

Tucson, Arizona 85743

USA

Alicat.com

Notice: Alicat Scientic, 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 Scientic
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.

For more information regarding this or any Alicat product, please
contact us at:

Alicat Scientic, Inc

7641 N Business Park Drive

Tucson, Arizona 85743

USA

Ph: 520-290-6060

888-290-6060

Fax: [phone]

email: [e-mail]

Web site: www.alicat.com

04/04/2016 Rev.4 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 8

Section 2 - Setting up Flow Vision™ SC 9

Registering Flow Vision™ SC 9

Flow Vision™ SC Menu and Menu functions 9

File Menu 10

Edit Menu 10

Layout Menu 10

Help Menu 10

Flow Vision™ SC Screen Layout 11

Tabs 11

Moving & Docking Modules in the Flow Vision™ Window 12

Section 3 - Communicating with a Device 13

Connecting To An Instrument And Receiving Data 13

Adding a Device to a Known COM Port 13

Searching for Devices 14

Opening the Device Window 15

General Tab 15

Gas Select™ 16

Averaging 16

Tare 16

Control Section (Controllers only) 16

Control Loop 16

Valve Tuning 17

Valve Offset 17

Info Tab 17

Creating Custom Expressions 17

Removing a Device 18

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Table of Contents

Section 4 – Optional Modules 19

Logs 19

Splitting Data Files 20

Starting and Stopping Data Logs 20

Charts 21

Creating Charts 21

Charting 22

Scripts 23

Descriptions of Simple Script Commands 24

Display Data 24

Change Set-point (Scale Units) 24

Change Set-point (% of Full Scale) 24

Tare 24

Sample Script 24

Running the Script 25

Terminals 26

Uninstalling Flow Vision™ SC 27

Troubleshooting and FAQs 28

Contact Information 29

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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 ow 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 Scientic’s Flow Vision™
software, we are sure you will nd many new and improved functions in
this latest version: Flow Vision™ SC.

Note: Identiers and scripts from earlier versions of Flow Vision™ are not
recognized by Flow Vision™ SC.

System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10

• Microsoft® .NET Framework Version 4.5.2
(A copy of Microsoft® .NET Framework can be downloaded at: https://
www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42642)

• 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 ow or pressure instrument.

To install the software, place your original Flow Vision™ SC USB ash
drive into a USB port on your computer or laptop.

In a moment, you will see the installation screen.

To continue, choose the button marked “Next >”.

Upon clicking “Next” the End User License Agreement will be shown.

Please read the Agreement carefully and if you agree to the terms listed,
use the 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 ash drive 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”.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.

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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”.

The next 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 satised 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 ash drive from your computer.
You will no longer need the Flow Vision™ SC ash drive to run the software.

Be sure to keep the Flow Vision™ SC ash drive and Registration
Key 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 rst 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 Scientic>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.
Specically, Flow Vision™ SC probes your computer for available COM
ports. This process only occurs on the rst launch of Flow Vision™ SC. All
subsequent 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 is provided with the software.

Please enter the name and registration key in the appropriate elds. After
successful registration, the application will launch.

Flow Vision™ SC Menu and Menu functions

When you start Flow Vision™ SC for the rst time you will see an empty
workspace.

Along the top of the screen you will nd the menu functions: File; Edit;
Layout and Help.

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.

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