Date of Award

Spring 2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Program/Concentration

Computer Engineering

Committee Director

Glenn A. Gerdin

Committee Member

Vishnu K. Lakdawala

Committee Member

James F. Leathrum

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.E55 H93 2002

Abstract

This thesis presents a complete embedded programming model and software codes for a command-line user interface for CONCOA's gas regulator control system. Control Corporation of America (CONCOA) manufactures high-pressure gas regulators, which mechanically control the pressure at their outlets. Since the control system is based on mechanical regulators, adding or stopping gas flow from the system can cause manifold fluctuation that could further cause the pressure to rise or fall with time. The main motivation for developing a command line user interface is to provide a centralized computer control to monitor and debug the gas regulator control system electronically by using a stand-alone 1BM-compatible personal computer. This project was of a considerable significance for CONCOA to increase the accuracy of the gas regulator and to operate their gas regulator system electronically and from a central control location.

A user interface is developed in assembly language for Motorola's 68HC12 microcontroller on an M68EVB912B32 Evaluation Board, which enables users to communicate interactively with CONCOA's gas regulator system. The software written for this project provides CONCOA a complete system to monitor and debug their hardware using a set of commands consists of read (monitor), write (modify) and debug system operations. The debug program uses a set of commands to modify and dump any RAM and ROMs locations respectively, and is recommended only for expert users of the system, since it provides a way to access the RAM locations which are impossible using the monitor program's command set. Mainly the two well integrated monitor and control programs are used to carry out all the operational tasks. This thesis explores only the monitor program that runs in the foreground as the main program for CONCOA system. The control program, works in the background, is used to perform AD and DA conversions to store the output pressure in the microcontroller's RAM and to calculate an equivalent voltage signal for a new set point pressure for the output respectively.

Finally, the successful testing of this software with the company's hardware provides a very strong base to suggest the further studies of this project.

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DOI

10.25777/a8ac-xv13

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