ADCoS: Automated Data Collection System The Automated Data Collection System (ADCoS) is designed to turn your Windows 3.0 or 3.1 environment into a field data logging system. The software is designed to collect data for up to 16 individual channels, per executable instance, from any available input source. Both linear and nonlinear sensors are supported. ADCoS device drivers can be quickly written using the ADCoS Device Driver Software Development Kit. The program is written to address the long-term slow acquisition problem.

A New Monitoring Concept

The ADCoS data logging concept allows for the assembly of integrated multi-channel data collection systems with inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software. ADCoS can be used interactively or as part of a distributed data logging network consisting of hundreds of remote sites. The ADCoS software is designed to operate across generations of IBM PC hardware configurations, from the most basic 8088 to today's high performance Pentium systems and on to the hardware platforms of the future.

Through the implementation of the Microsoft Windows graphical user environment, ADCoS acquisition systems are highly modular, expandable, and interactive even in a field acquisition setting. The ADCoS software is designed for nonprogrammers and only a minimal hardware understanding is needed to configure a basic fieldable system. No knowledge of the PC interrupt or Direct Memory Access (DMA) structures is required.

System Applications

ADCoS is specifically designed for the acquisition of multiple data channels at a low sampling rate (one sample per second per channel or slower). A mixture of sensors with varying sample rates and alarm threshold settings are supported. Because of the Microsoft Windows implementation, site-specific requirements are handled by ancillary software packages (commercial or custom) that run in tandem with the ADCoS software. Execution of multiple instances of ADCoS allows for open ended channel expandability. The Windows message passing facilities and Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support complete the interprocess communications links needed for a highly modular system.

Laboratory and Field Use

ADCoS runs on Microsoft Windows PC compatible hardware in Real Mode (Windows 3.0), or in Standard and Enhanced Modes (Windows 3.0 or 3.1). This configuration is ideal for low-cost data acquisition systems. ADCoS supports a variety of commercial data acquisition cards but it can also accept serial, parallel, GPIB, and keyboard input. Different input sources are supported through custom Windows Dynamically Linked Libraries (DLL) to create virtual acquisition cards. Each "card" can support as many as 16 data channels. System channel capacity is determined by the number of available card slots and the nature of the CPU.

Features of ADCoS

ADCoS has been designed to provide features that are not common in data logging systems, such as a level of data interaction that is usually reserved for laboratory settings. Additional capabilities can be added through either custom or third-party software applications.

Sampling Control

ADCoS gives the user full control over the sampling process. ADCoS logs all data as raw digital counts with an associated channel and time stamp, so each data channel is configured independently. The channel configuration information is stored as part of the file header. The sampling control features include, but are not limited to:

• Flexible and rapid setup of monitoring systems with multiple sensors. No specialized PC hardware knowledge is required. Only the base address of the acquisition card needs to be specified.
• Independently labeled channels with titles and engineering units (linear and piecewise monotonic nonlinear transformations) for easier identification.
• Independent and varied sampling rates for each data channel.
• Instantaneous, filtered (average, min, max, integral) or delayed filtered (e.g., 5-minute average every 4 hours) data sampling.
• High- and low-threshold and trend alarm levels (inclusive or exclusive) which can be set independently for each channel.
• Alarm testing performed as desired on instantaneous or filtered data.
• Sampling rate automatically changed when an alarm condition occurs.
• Start and stop times for sampling set with a variable delay of seconds, minutes, hours or days (relative offset or absolute time and date reference).

Interactive Data Viewing

ADCoS uses the Windows Multi-Document Interface (MDI) to allow for the simultaneous graphical display of multiple data channels. A tabular display is also available on a channel by channel basis. Some of the available interactive features are:

• Moveable and sizeable data windows.
• Attention to alarm conditions from visible and audible alerts.
• Changeable time scale (display rate) for viewing shorter or longer time periods.
• Synchronization of displayed channels to a user-selected time.
• Data channels scrollable forward or backward in time, even while acquisition progresses.

Ease of Use

The Windows environment is a state-of-the-art graphical user interface (GUI) designed for use by nonprogrammers. Important features that make this interface easy to use include:

• The use of dialog boxes, pull-down menus and selected option exclusions to minimize keyboard data entry requirements.
• Keyboard and mouse control for all functions.
• Context-sensitive on-line help.

Output Options

ADCoS can save data to disk files which permits the concurrent interactive viewing, printing, and transfer of data to other applications. Output options include:

• Real-time logging of data to a printer.
• Printing of graphics or tables.
• Clipboard support for bitmaps and tabular data.
• Converting native ADCoS data files to either TAB or COMMA delimited text files (TXT and CSV formats).
• Converting files interactively or via DDE.
• Retrieving raw or scaled data via DDE.
• Requesting or modifying any ADCoS configuration setting via DDE.

Security

ADCoS provides basic security measures for data and system operation to prevent problems caused by intentional tampering or inadvertent user error. These measures include:

• Interactive file certification.
• Multiple instance awareness to prevent accidental writeaccess to a single data file by more than one executing copy of ADCoS.
• Extensive resource awareness to allow the ungraceful termination of ADCoS without compromising the system or data integrity.
• A unique file buffering scheme which enables disk files to remain closed at the operating system level during data collection.

Reliability

The ADCoS software provides robust features that ensure low-maintenance, unattended data acquisition system operation. The features include:

• Recovery from all but the most serious hardware errors.
• Reduced possibility of user errors by minimizing keyboard data entry.
• Error checking on all user commands.
• Automatic restart and recovery after power failure.
• Internal validation of all memory objects before implementation.
• Automatic scanning of opened data files for data validity and completeness.

Cost-Saving Features

Data collection systems based on the ADCoS design concept have a low initial cost, low-maintenance cost, and minimal upgrade cost.

• No Special Hardware - Systems require only commercial off-the-shelf PC hardware components.
• No Special Software - ADCoS runs as an application under the industry standard Windows 3.0 or 3.1 operating systems. ADCoS interfaces to other applications with DDE and the Windows message passing facilities.
• No Special Training - The user interface conventions are standard for most Windows applications.
• Easily Expandable - The modular architecture permits expansion of the channel capacity in 16 channel increments with no need for software modifications.
• Minimum Communications Costs - Existing telephone lines and third-party communication software can be used to create a wide-area data logging system.

Centralized Monitoring Systems

Through the use of either custom or third-party Windows communication and network software packages, centralized monitoring systems with hundreds of remote nodes can be assembled. In this type of configuration, the central site can control all the remote sites and monitor alarm and status messages. Polling is used to transfer collected data back to the central site. The system can use standard or cellular telephone lines, satellite links or a mixture of telecommunication systems to connect remote sites to a central host.

Third-Party Monitoring

Since the communication lines connecting a central system to the remote acquisition sites are not hard-wired to the central site, interested third parties can be granted access to the data at the remote stations. In an application such as monitoring underground storage tanks for leaks, an ADCoS-based system allows an insurer or tank owner to independently access leak sensor data whenever desired. Such a configuration permits a third party to have the same remote viewing capabilities as the central site but can preclude the party from making any system changes.

ADCoS DDSDK API

An ADCoS Device Driver Software Development Kit has been developed to simplify the development of ADCoS device driver DLLs. Drivers for all but the most complicated interface devices can usually be created in one day by an experienced programmer. Each instance of the ADCoS application can link into a different device driver DLL, so the configuration options are virtually unlimited.

A copy of a demonstration version of the software is available for download:

ADCoS Demonstration Software (zip file 212KB)

06/20/00 ern