If you are designing a data acquisition system and you would like to develop a user interface quickly, test it, improve it, test it, improve it and deliver a working system, then you may want to set aside a few minutes to download DAPstudio 3.00 and decide to try it out. There is no time limit on the free trial of the full software. DAPstudio 3.00, the latest version of DAP Measurement Studio software from Microstar labouratories, maker of Data Acquisition Processor (DAP) boards and software, includes a new custom window design capability.

This lets you size and place different display formats exactly the way you want them.

You now have a tool to help you quickly create the most effective user interface for your application.

It lets you select any combination of graph, table, waterfall, bar, alarm, and digital volt meter formats to display application data.

And the user can toggle between flat and 3D views.

You also can almost instantly configure a matrix of user input controls to run experiments or to allow operator input in a production environment.

For instance, the PID tuning simulation application illustrated in the screen shot can very easily be set up in DAPstudio 3.00 with four edit boxes to specify the set point and P, I, and D parameters.

With this four-element matrix of user controls in place, a press of a button changes the settings in the application.

Creating the matrix is simple.

You say how many controls you want, and how you want them laid out in columns: in this case, four controls - in one, two, or four columns.

You then add that matrix of user controls to your custom window.

The company Web site includes other examples that show you how to set up user controls like this for different applications.

Every DAP board includes an onboard processor that runs a real-time operating system, DAPL, that Windows applications - like DAPstudio - can control.

DAP boards also communicate among themselves independently of Windows to synchronise their clocks with one another.

They then all work together as a synchronised data acquisition system not only within a single PC but also across a network.

DAPstudio 3.00 lets you configure every DAP board in a network from a single PC on that network.

It displays a map of the DAP network, with each board represented by an icon.

Clicking on the icon lets you configure that board.

You specify, by choosing from appropriate options presented by DAPstudio at each stage of the configuration process, exactly how that board is to behave at runtime.

DAPstudio expresses this behavior as a sequence of operations that it downloads for the onboard processor to perform on the flow of acquired data.

As described above, you can use DAPstudio to configure one or more DAPs for an application.

You then can run your application without requiring any other Windows software.

You also can do this from LabVIEW, MATLAB, and other third-party software.

And from C++, VB, and other applications that allow DLL calls.

You can quickly create custom user interfaces for your PC-based data acquisition applications using DAPstudio 3.00.

From a single PC you can configure any DAP board on a network and also run a complete application with no other Windows software.

The company provides hardware and software for evaluation at no charge.

You can download a full version of DAPstudio and try it out right now.

If you decide to keep on using DAPstudio after you have tried it, you will need to buy a license.