Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic

by: Mark F. Russo, Martin M. Echols

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Editorial Reviews From Book News, Inc. Presents techniques for solving problems that commonly arise in a laboratory using Visual Basic 6.0, including communication through an RS-232 port and TCP/IP network connection, development of instrument controllers, and the creation of interactive scientific graphical displays. The guide also provides several custom-developed software tools for building software applications such as a customizable spreadsheet class, and a class containing a variety of predefined parsing functions. Familiarity with the BASIC programming language is required. Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR Book Description A Volume in the Wiley-Interscience Series on Laboratory Automation. The complete, step-by-step guide to using Visual Basic(r) in a laboratory setting Visual Basic(r) is fast becoming the de facto laboratory programming language, yet existing books typically discuss applications that have nothing to do with science and engineering. This primer fills the gap in the field, showing professionals seeking to improve the productivity of their laboratories how to use Visual Basic(r) to automate laboratory processes. Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic(r) helps laboratory professionals decide when and if to use Visual Basic(r) and how to combine it with the many computing technologies used in modern laboratories such as RS-232 port communications, TCP/IP networking, and event-driven control, to name a few. With an emphasis on getting readers programming immediately, the book provides clear guidelines to the appropriate programming techniques as well as custom-developed software tools. Readers will learn how to build applications to control laboratory instruments, collect and process experimental data, create interactive graphical applications, and more. Boasting many working examples with the complete source code and backward compatibility to previous versions of Visual Basic(r), Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic(r) is an indispensable teaching tool for nonprogrammers and a useful reference for more experienced practitioners. Book Info Helps laboratory professionals decide when and if to use Visual Basic and how to combine it with the many computing technologies used in modern laboratories such as RS-232 port communications, TCP/IP networking, and event-driven control. Softcover. DLC: Laboratories--Data processing.

From the Back Cover A Volume in the Wiley-Interscience Series on Laboratory Automation. The complete, step-by-step guide to using Visual Basic(r) in a laboratory setting Visual Basic(r) is fast becoming the de facto laboratory programming language, yet existing books typically discuss applications that have nothing to do with science and engineering. This primer fills the gap in the field, showing professionals seeking to improve the productivity of their laboratories how to use Visual Basic(r) to automate laboratory processes. Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic(r) helps laboratory professionals decide when and if to use Visual Basic(r) and how to combine it with the many computing technologies used in modern laboratories such as RS-232 port communications, TCP/IP networking, and event-driven control, to name a few. With an emphasis on getting readers programming immediately, the book provides clear guidelines to the appropriate programming techniques as well as custom-developed software tools. Readers will learn how to build applications to control laboratory instruments, collect and process experimental data, create interactive graphical applications, and more. Boasting many working examples with the complete source code and backward compatibility to previous versions of Visual Basic(r), Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic(r) is an indispensable teaching tool for nonprogrammers and a useful reference for more experienced practitioners. About the Author MARK F. RUSSO is Senior Researcher with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Combinatorial Drug Discovery Group and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems at Drexel University. He is the developer of several laboratory computer applications and robot systems and has published extensively on related topics. MARTIN M. ECHOLS is Site Manager for Combinatorial Chemistry Automation for Bristol-Myers Squibb. He has authored several software applications for automating laboratory systems.

An excellent resource for those active in lab automation: There is numerous laboratory instrumentation and many laboratory operations using Visual Basic in some form with laboratory automation being a large user of Visual Basic programs. The book is written by Mark Russo and Marty Echols of Bristol-Myers-Squibb who are active in lab automation and have presented a course on this topc at national and international meetings. I liked the way this book to a straightforward approach to the topic with good explanations and sample problems throughout. It additionally provides information on how to download problems from the Wiley ftp site will would allow the authors the opportunity to update problems making the book less likely to suffer the fate of many books since unfortunately sometimes books are obsolete by the time they are published. This book is divided into 26 chapters with 3 appendices. It's 345 pages allow the topic to be covered in sufficient depth to make an important contribution to the automation literature. In addition to being an excellent resource for learning Visual Basic in laboratory operations, the book would also make an ideal text for a class on the topic. It should be included in the library of those interested in laboratory automation

Reviews:

Useful addition to your reference library: I am surprised at some of the negative reviews of this book. This book contains some very useful material especially the TCP/IP and Parser Class topics. The only reason that I didn't give it five stars is because of the space wasted on a review of the Visual Basic Language. I used some of the ideas in this book in a VB Human Machine Interface (HMI) application that I developed. The source code is available at ....

Nice book on Automation with Visual Basic: If you want to study Visual Basic with this book, it may not be a right choice. However, if you want to do automation with VB, this is a right book. Several topics in this book are very useful to me. 1)Communication methods with VB. One of the foundamental thing in automatic control of devices/instrument is to establish the communication between computer and devices/instrument. Several useful methods are covered. They are Dynamic Data Exchange(DDE), RS232(computer serial communication), and TCP/IP. This book will not enable you to understand in deep details what's really going on in RS232 or TCP/IP communications, but this book will definitely enable you to implement these methods. Actually, in most cases if not all, we do not need to know what's really going on in RS232 or TCP/IP communications at all. 2)Device control and data handling. This part covers how to handle the data transferred in communication--parsing, and control multiple devices/instrument. 3)Graphic interfaces, which will enable developers to build a friendly interface between the control system and end users. Please do not overlook this, it is most probably that the users' commends on your system depend a lot on this interface, because this is what they can see and handle with. This book is one of the valuable books on my shelf, and I would like to recomment to other people. Anyway, all depends on what you need and what you expect. This is just my 2 cents. Good luck in finding a book valuable for your use.

Waste of Time and Money: Based on the earlier reviews, I though this is a good book to read. But I was wrong. I think all earlier reviewers (other than one review that rated it one star) probably do not know how to use help in Visual Basic. If you want to use PCs for monitoring project, just read VB help for comm port control. This book is full of examples and not much explaination about understanding of serial communication. I totally agree ...that any one who has any knowledge of VB should not buy this. Reading this book was a total waste of time and money.

A timely addition to any scientist?: A paradigm shift in today's pharmaceutical industry is forcing many traditionally trained scientists to embrace an automated environment. As a result, software for controlling instrumentation is more important than ever and many companies have turned their efforts toward in-house development to answer this need. In their book, Mark Russo and Martin Echols show how today's most popular Windows development language can be used to create robust and reliable software for instrument control. The authors also include a terrific section on graphical displays, which will help you provide the user friendliness and visual representation of data that your users will expect. This book was a lifesaver for me. I recommend that anyone looking at integrating automation into his or her company's workflow buy this book and read it before doing anything else!

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