How to Create Templates for Devices in CHROMuLAN

With CHROMuLAN you can collect simultaneously data from several devices. This tutorial will guide you through all the steps which has to be done to achieve this functionality.

The easiest way to get data from a device is to setup a Template for the device. Then to start the acquisition you have to run "File | New Acquisition" command, double click the template in the list in "Analysis" tab and use the opened window's local menu (open by right click) to start, pause or stop the acquisition. The following steps must be done to setup the template for the device:

Add the device to the list of devices

  • If the device can be autodetected (devices from Pikron company), select the "Setup | Devices | Autodetect" command in the main menu to get the device into the list.
  • Other (external) devices must be added to the list using the procedure desribed in the RS232 devices tutorial.
  • Use "Setup | Devices | Browse" command to open the list of devices.

If you have more external devices which all use the same driver, only one device is added to the device list automatically. To add another device which uses the same driver:

  1. Use the device list local menu "Add" command to add a new empty device record.
  2. In the new device record set the values of fields "Device Mode", "Device Type" and "Ext Dev Drv" to the same values as the first (autodected) device has.
  3. Then assign "Device Port" (e.g. COM3) and "Device Name". Use some descriptive name which allows easy recognition of the device among the others (e.g. "UV Detector on COM3").
  4. You might also want to (or have to) modify the "Device Port" and "Device Name" of the autodected device.
Create a channel for the device

A channel can have theoretically assigned more devices, but safer is to create a new channel for each device, from which data should be collected.

To create a new channel record

  1. Open the channel list - "Setup | Channels".
  2. Then use local menu "Add" command to create a new empty channel record.
  3. Click on the new channel record (on the "Channel" label) to make it a selected record.
  4. Open local menu (right click) and select "Channel | Browse" command. This way you open a list of devices assigned to the channel.
  5. From local menu you can "Add" a new "Channel Device" record to which you assign your device, which you can select from the dropdown list.
Create a template for the device
  1. Open existing template (e.g. Empty.ULT) using "File | Open" command. You have to select folder "C:\Program Files\CHROMuLAN\data\Templates" (usually just select Template subfolder) and select type of the file Template (*.ULT) to see the list of existing templates.
  2. Open the template setup dialog using local menu "Setup" command.
  3. In the "Instrument" tab assign the channel you created to the Channel Name.
  4. Save the template under a new name (e.g. "Template for UV Detector on COM3") using "File | Save as" main menu command.
Last change: 2010-10-07