Remote control of electronic equipment.

An application to the practical formation of university students

R.Cabello, M.Dieguez, I.Gonzalez, F.J.Gomez, J.Martinez Dpto. Ingenieria Informatica, E.T.S. de Informatica. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. 28049 Madrid Javier.Martinez@ii.uam.es M.Cervera Laboratorio de Microelectronica. Facultad de Ciencias. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. 28049 Madrid Manuel.Cervera@uam.es

1. Abstract
In this paper we present a vehicle for a complete engineering and scientists practical formation. It is made possible by the use of virtual instrumentation, not in the sense of a simulation tool, but as the remote access to facilities located in related research laboratories. Internet World Wide Web provides a best way to materialize this remote access, reducing the requirements in the educational laboratory to workstations (WS) or personal computers (PC) with the habitual Internet access.

2. Introduction
In the academic formation of engineers and science bachelors in areas like electronics, microelectronics or communications, it is desirable an adequate practical component permitting the students a real approximation to instrumentation systems and equipments which they will employ in their future works. It requires an elevate investment of founds in equipment in the academic laboratories. This is due not only to the high cost of the different measurement systems required in each technological area, but to the continuous equipment actualization required to avoid the obsolescence of those characterization and analysis systems. The project we present in this paper is an alternative to traditional academic laboratories, based on the use of the resources present in the research and development laboratories. This resources are usually used in those centers

with a frequency that permits their use with academic purposes during reasonable time intervals. It is possible by using the Internet World Wide Web (WWW) as the remote access way of users from the academic laboratories to the centers in which the measurement system are physically located, as well as the circuits or devices to be characterized. The development of this idea is being done in the RemoTe Worldwide Instrument Network (RETWINE) project [1], founded by the Socrates program of the European Union. The project objective is to offer the students of European Universities a set of measurement facilities located at the Microelectronics Laboratories of the Bordeaux, Mnster and Autonoma of Madrid Universities. Concretely, our laboratory is incorporating to this net a semiconductor parameter analyzer HP 9145B.

3. Remote measurement system implementation

The different parts that integrate the whole remote access measurement system are: the measurement instrument, a controller equipment that will be called instrumentation server, a web server and the client computer (PC or WS) from which the user accedes to the system. A scheme is represented in the Fig. 1.

Figure 1: Remote measurement system scheme.

Most of the measurement instruments used in test and characterization processes, in the fields here considered, can be remotely programmed from an external controller by using a communication interface IEEE488. The multitude of GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus) cards available for any kind of computer, including programming libraries for its control from applications written in high level languages, makes this interface the most adequate for the connection between the measurement instrument and the controller computer. The number of instruments connected to a same controller, and so accessible from it, is only limited by the capacity of the chosen interface (a maximum of 30 instruments). On the other hand, the controller or instrumentation server acts, in its interface with the local area network (LAN), as a TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) server using a particular port for this application. This server transmits information to or from the measurement instruments, coming from or directed to the user computer through the WAN. The controller program has been developed in such a way that it is independent of the measurement instrument, and also of the analysis or test nature which is being performed. It is restricted to a data flux exchange between the LAN and the IEEE-488 interfaces. Because the program executed in the controller is able to serve several users demands directed to several measurement instruments, an appropriated name for the controller is an instrumentation server[2]. Finally, in the user computer, it will be executed an application, supplied by the Web server, on an adequate client for the WWW as a browser is. That application has been developed in Java, in order to provide it a multiplatform characteristic. It contains the graphic interface, or virtual instrument, by mean of which the user performs the set of remote measures, using the interactive Web page generated by the application. As it has been said, the interface consists in a graphic reproducing the front panel of the measurement instrument. This panel usually contains the buttons for the measurement setup. By using the mouse, pushing the graphic's buttons, the user generates in the instrument the same effect that pushing it in the front panel of the physical instrument. To this goal, we make use of the instrument programming command set: commands are generated by the application, and send to the instrument through the Web server and the instrumentation server, successively. Fig. 2 shows an example of virtual instrument: the HP 9145B semiconductor parameter analyzer implemented in our laboratory.

Figure 2: Virtual instrument (HP 9145B) managed by the user from a

browser. Besides the virtual instrument, the user can accede to help pages in which the technical characteristics of the equipments are detailed. As the devices to be evaluated are located near the real measurement instrument and, for this reason, are no accessible by the user, they are been added audio and video communication facilities, between the user and the person in charge in the laboratory. An audio tool like NetMeeting permit the user to indicate the kind of fixture to be done. Also, a videoconference application allows the user to observe images from the experimental system arrangement.

4. Acknowledgments 5. References

The RETWINE project is partially supported by the Socrates program of the UE, number 56426-CP-1-98-1-ES

[1] P.Kadionik, T.Zimmer, Y.Danto. "Instrumentation virtuelle sur le world wide web pour faire des mesures reelles". http://aramis.ixl.ubordeaux.fr:8080/. 1997. [2] M.Cervera, F.Gomez, J.Martinez. "Remote System Measurement using Internet". Webnet 99. Hawai.USA [3] M.Cervera, F.Gomez, J.Martinez. "The RETWINE Project". http://pc-9.fa.uam.es