How to Build Control Panels

A digital control panel offers a lot more flexibility than a hard-wired control panel.

Building control panels in desktop software is a good way to control a complex process like running a plant or something simple like a robot. The software must have the ability to sense the environment and report what it finds on your panels. Your efforts are only limited by what you can measure. The right control panel variables can be the difference between 2000 widgets done right or 2000 junk widgets. The concepts involved here are challenging but important.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Visual Basic
• Custom Active X Charting Objects (chart control, control panel applet generator, Gantt Chart Library, chart component.net, etc.)
• Labview Software
• Thermistors
• Optical sensors
• Air flow sensors
• Wire
• Labview Sensor Input Array

Instructions

1. Open up Visual Studio and select Visual BASIC. Choose New Project and wait until the screen comes up.

2. Install the custom charting objects into the Visual BASIC platform. You can do this by importing these control panel objects individually into Visual BASIC. Each of these will appear to be a separate control panel to the user.

3. Inside the project window, drag and drop the control panel objects into your current project. Create a window and put the control panel objects inside the window.

4. Decide what you want to monitor in your environment. If you want monitor industrial processes, you can connect the labview software to Visual BASIC via asynchronous methods. Labview can provide command line access to data for Visual BASIC. This gives BASIC access to temperatures, rotation rates, and other measurements in industrial processes. Record the parameters you want to monitor.

5. Put the sensors throughout the process you want to monitor. Put optical sensors in places where light is obstructed by objects. Put thermistors in places to measure heat. Using the wire, string all of these back to the sensor array and plug it into your computer. Set up Labview to measure these parameters. Test results in the Labview interface. Pass the parameters to Visual BASIC via command line.

6. Using Visual BASIC record and display the information passed to it by Labview. Display this data using the charting controls. When you have tested the inputs, compile the program to machine code and you have a completed set of control panels for your process.

Tips & Warnings

• Write the software to continually poll the sensors for new readings.

• Write the software to look for malfunctions based on no response received.

• Always stop machinery before mounting sensors of any kind.

References

• NMRA: Control Panel Basics
• Softbitonline: Digital Software Control Panel