PICBench

The following screenshot illustrates the capabilities of the package.

Each PICBench window or "Bench" can contain a user defined number of "Instruments" (currently the "Meter" is the only instrument type available). The number of instruments and their individual configurations can be set at run time and can also be stored in individual files for subsequent retrieval. Several "Benches" can be run at once allowing different tasks to be stored in different files.

The "Meter" has a number of user configuable options as illustrated above:

• Select an individual PIC address on a multi drop serial link.
• Select an 8 bit 10 bit or 16 bit value based on one or two PIC RAM registers.
• Display a numeric value of either the raw hex or a decimal based on a user entered scale and offset.
• Display an analog bar graph of the value with or without a setpoint output (the yellow dot).
• Display a binary "LED" display of the raw value with or without one-shot (yellow) or latching (green) outputs.

The PICBench protocol driver can be run without any further code being added to the PIC or it can cooperate with a PIC application designed by the user. The PICBench driver requires only exclusive use of the USART and a small number of RAM registers. The design attempts to minimise the impact it will have on the operation of the PIC.

Follow the links on the left for more details