An inexpensive experiment controller for stand-alone applications or distributed processing networks

Abstract

An inexpensive microprocessor-based experiment controller available as a commercially produced bare printed circuit board is described. It provides for up to 8 inputs and 40 outputs. An 8K Experiment Control BASIC (ECBASIC) and a compiled Experiment Control Language (ECL) are also available. Both languages have internal structures that enable time and responses to be dealt with in a very convenient and error-free manner. Time and response count are automatically incrementing variables that need only to be tested by the user program. ECBASIC provides a 10•msec accuracy, whereas ECL provides a l•msec accuracy. ECL provides extensive support for event-driven programs. The board and software are designed to provide an orderly migration from a stand-alone controller running ECBASIC as a relay-rack replacement, to a network of ECBASIC machines on a small computer, to a true error-checking network of ECL machines on a time-sharing operating system of a large computer. Network communication is over the three wires of a single unmodified RS232 asynchronous serial communication line.

Construction and implementation of a low-cost electronic experiment control interface

“…A third version of the ECB utilizes a completely different operating system, the experiment control language, which uses precompiled control code that allows the ECB to make precise elapsed timing (down to 1 msec) for the measurement of interevent times. Other versions of the ECB, as well as additional details on the versions described above, can be found in Walter and Palya's (1984) paper.…”

“…As described by Walter and Palya (1984), the ECB uses a 6809 microprocessor with 16K of dynamic memory and 16K of PROM memory. The dynamic memory is used to store operating programs, as well as data collected during the experiment.…”

“…

Low-cost electronic experiment control boards (ECBs), developed by Walter and Palya (1984), were constructed and implemented for use at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory. Each ECB was wired to control experiments using animals as subjects.

…”

A powerful, inexpensive experiment controller or IBM PC interface and experiment control language

“…This paper presents the details of our new experiment control computer. The functionality of our previous controller (Walter & Palya, 1984) has been greatly enhanced. Two control languages are supported, the hardware can be used either in a network mode with IBM-compatible or Macintosh computers, or as a simple interface between an IBM PC and an experimental apparatus.…”

“…The interested reader is referred to Cooper, Garcia, and Gibbon (1988), D' Andrea and Knepton (1988), Palya (1988), Pevey (1988), Walter (1988), Walter and Palya (1984), and Weisman and Palya (1988). The present paper will present only an overview of the research environment and the features available with the new hardware and software.…”