VICL software with VIPod or Vinterface hardware and a PC replace a Digital Oscilloscope, Signal Generator, Phase Meter, Servo Controller, PID Controller, Digital Meters and Data Logger to give easy to understand, easy to view control and low cost experiments.

Further description of this application

Based on VIPS software, VICL turns any PC into a versatile tool for teaching control or controlling experiments.
Allows open-loop, servo and PID control to be implemented.
Drive signals are from the internal signal generator, command potentiometer or external waveform generators.
Mimic shows control configuration and parameters.
Real plant can be driven via VIPod or VInterface hardware.
Results are shown on the 8 channel virtual oscilloscope
Setup for each experiment can be stored for use later.

Control Experiments from your PC

VICL is a low cost software/hardware combination which allows real plant to be controlled from a PC with all control signals being derived within the PC and the PC being used to display the control signals. To investigate the control performance of a process, all that is required is the process under observation, any Windows PC with VICL software and either VIPodS analog interface pods (V10/20 or V10+v20) or Vinterface hardware.

Demonstration software can be downloaded.

VICL can be used to identify the open-loop response of a plant, see how a servo responds to changes in Gain and Velocity Feedback or to see how a process responds to changes in PID control settings. All controls are set using the mouse and all responses are shown on the 8 channel graphic display.

Control Reference Input Signals

The input can be set from the VICL Signal Generator or from an external signal.
VICL can provide Sine, Step, Ramp, Triangle, Random or Pulse waveforms.
A signal for disturbances is also available.
The sampling rate or frequency of the signal can be set.

Controllers

Open Loop - Reference signal output directly to allow open loop identification testing
Bang-Bang - ON/OFF control
Servo - Gives control of Gain and Velocity Feedback
PID - Gives control of Proportional Band, Integral Time Constant and Derivative Time Constant

Plants

Drives & monitors external demonstration systems

Analog - Outputs an analog drive signal and inputs the plant position, velocity and external reference via an analog-to-digital convertor.
Digital - Outputs a PWM drive and input the plant position from a Gray code disk via a logic interface.

Illustrate the difference between theory & practice

Servo - Simulates a servo system giving position and velocity signals.  Used with the servo controller.
Process - Simulates a 2nd order process without an integrator.  Transport delay can be introduced. Used with the PID controller.

Displays

The 8 channel real-time display can show all the control signals involved in Oscilloscope/Graph, Bar Graph, Panel Meter and List form.
Channels are colour coded and labelled to their positions within the control loop as shown on the mimic diagram.
Input, output, error, drive, velocity etc can be displayed simultaneously. For clarity, traces can be switched OFF when not required.

Experiments

Set of experiments for UC Technology DC Servo Motor Set, LJ MS15 DC Motor Set and Feedback MS150 Servo system are available. for details.

Experimental data can be dumped to disk for analysis using other programs. All dump files are text files and can be read with a text reading program such as Notepad. Files can be in :-

Print Format - a heading on each page and in engineering units.
Excel format - a heading at the beginning of the file and in engineering units.
Data Format - raw data as measured with no engineering unit calculations included.
Matlab Format - can easily be imported into Matlab programs for analysis.