Zephyr is a data acquisition and measurement automation program written in Java. It has been developed to simplify
some laboratory tests at Nanomix.
It is also being used by the Star Research Group at the University of Pittsburgh.
This program may be suitable for many other applications involving measurement instruments and actuators, especially where
there's a need to change the setup often.
The most important feature of this program is scripting, which allows scheduling of configuration and measurement events. The script language is based on XML. The script interpreter, instruments and output components are loosely coupled in this program, making it quite flexible.
Communication with an instrument requires an adapter (driver) class that implements certain simple interfaces, depending on the instrument's functionality. The interfaces are based on the same principles as the IVI standard. Currently, about 25 various instruments are supported over GPIB, RS-232 and Ethernet.
Here are some examples of supported instruments:Writing a new adapter is usually trivial. For simple instruments, the main challenge is figuring out the communication protocol. Program's output components receive the data from the measurement instruments active in a given script. Output components also implement simple interfaces. Currently, there are two file writer components that support different formats, one plotter and one network server component that supports a particular type of measurements.
SourceForge project page – Take a look at some screenshots, download Zephyr, leave feedback, open a bug report, submit your own code.
A Nanotechnology Test System – Evaluation Engineering Magazine, July 2007 Feature Article.
Automatisches Testsystem mit hoher Flexibilität – Elektronik, Produktion & Prüftechnik, October 2007 (in German).
Sensing at the Nano-Level – Control Engineering Magazine, October 2007.
Детектирование на нано уровне – Control Engineering Россия, February 2008 (in Russian).
Detekce na nanoúrovni – Control Engineering Česko, February 2008 (in Czech).