An Undergraduate Power Laboratory Using Microcomputer Based Instrumentation

A microcomputer based data acquisition and control system has been installed for use in an undergraduate power systems laboratory. This system has removed the tedium of data collection and display without eliminating meaningful hands-on experience in the laboratory. A menu driven operating system makes the system user-friendly and avoids the tedium of primitive computer graphics and data calls. The students write programs that share memory with the operating system to manipulate acquired data. This allows the user to call system subroutines to control power supplies and acquire data from their programs as well as reach several utilities from the system menu. The system is under continued expansion as resources allow. The system and, more important, the laboratory course that uses the system are well received by the students.