alicat MFC

MATLAB class to control Alicat MFCs over a USB port.

Usage

First, determine which port your MFC appears on. To do this, you might have to plug the device in and out, reboot your machine, or scan /dev/.

Once you are convinced your computer can see the MFC, switch to MATLAB and create a MFC object:

m = MFC;

Look at the values of the P term in the control loop:

m.P

Set the value of the P term in the control loop to a new value:

m.P = 1000;

Change the setpoint to 100mL/min

m.set_point = 100;

View the current (actual) flow rate

m.flow_rate

View serial number, model number, and other parameters:

m = MFC
	MFC with properties:

             port: 'COM3'
              fid: [1x1 serial]
        baud_rate: 19200
        verbosity: 10
             name: 'A'
                P: 1100
                I: 0
                D: 10000
      temperature: []
         pressure: []
        set_point: 0
        flow_rate: []
     model_number: 'MCX-500SCCM-Y'
    serial_number: 91686
    max_flow_rate: 500

Find the best P and D parameters so that the MFC can reach a setpoint in the shortest possible time:

m.tunePID;

Performance

• Updating flow setpoint: ~8 ms
• Reading default frame: ~9 ms
• Lag between updating setpoint and MFC achieving setpoint (parameter dependent): ~95 ms

Installation

Install using my package manager:

urlwrite('http://srinivas.gs/install.m','install.m')
install sg-s/alicat-mfc
install sg-s/srinivas.gs_mtools 

License

GPL v3