Device Manager

Overview#

The Device Manager is used to configure the following:

• adding, removal and configuration of devices or laboratory instruments
• configuration of location types which are used to group locations according to type or usage
• control data related to simulation accuracy such as operation simulation durations
• device dependency control which is used to specify the order of both initialization and uninitialization of devices

The following screen shot shows the device editor with a single device open in the editor window. Note that the left hand pane contains a list of devices and a list of location types. Devices can be opened for editing by double clicking the device name.

When a device name is double clicked the device configuration pane will be opened as shown in the following screen shot. Note that the device name is shown in the upper tab and if a right click is performed on the tab it can be closed if required.

The screen shot above shows that the device editor has four tabs as follows:

• Device configuration – presents device configuration data specific to the device in an easy to understand manner
• Locations – device locations can be added, removed and edited
• Operation – device operation data can be viewed and operation simulation times specified
• Dependencies – device initialization and uninitialisation dependencies can be specified to control the order and dependencies between devices.

Device Simulation#

Individual devices can be put into simulation mode from the Device Manager by right clicking onto the device name as shown below. When a device is in simulation mode it will be simulated regardless of the main operation mode of the system. In the example below the device PlateLoc is shown as in simulation mode. Simulated devices are indicated by a lighter icon as shown below.

Device Operations#

The screen shot below shows the operations tab which will show a list of all the operations that a device exposes, the parameters that they take including the types of each parameter. In addition each operation has a simulation time which can be adjusted by the user so that simulation schedule execution is representative of the real system execution. Right clicking on the operation will show a context menu which allows setting of the simulation times.