- It is a feedback control system with 70+ instruments that will be monitored/controlled simultaneously, mostly thermocouples and electric solenoid valves that need to be opened and closed.
Think about how you want to organize those 70+ instruments. If everything was the same thing, I'd say make an array, use DAQmx (or equivalent) to get an array of Task Refs, and at Execution Time, wire the Ref to the appropriate Read or Write function. This works best, of course, when there is a "predictable" sequence ("Test each Switch in order" = For loop). If each instrument is a little idiosyncratic, it can become a little more complicated, of course. But you probably do not want 70 different wires floating around your Block Diagram.
- It will be largely a linear state machine in which the user sets some parameters, then hits "run". The program then disables most user controls, except for an abort button and some minor settings that can be adjusted while the process is running.
When someone says "It will be largely a linear state machine", I think of the State Machine template. However, I do have a fondness for the Queued Message Handler ...
- States are then excecuted linearly from beginning to end until the sequence is complete, then return to the base state.
See previous concept.
Without knowing (a lot) more about your needs, these ideas seem to "suggest themselves" to me.
Bob Schor
