Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic

This book is not a beginner's book on VB6 programming although it does skim over some entry level material, rather it is exactly what its title suggests: coverage of automating lab equipment. The authors cover a lot of territory in a logical and orderly manner and provide you with several programs that will help your understanding of using a comport to communicate. They go to great lengths to teach you proper methods of implementing a communications sub-system within your program, even to the point of developing a command parsing routine. It is up to the reader to ascertain the command structure of the selected interfacing device (PLC, Microcontroller, etc.) in use, but little else of importance is not covered here. An added bonus is the inclusion of several controls that can be used in your own programs. There are, among other things, a thermometer with upper and lower limits that are user settable, and a graph. I really like the graph and have modified it so that it shows real-time data in a program I use for controlling equipment. If you take the time to go through this book from beginning to end you will have gained a good understanding of programming a communication link between a computer and a remote device using VB6. Some of the material will be grasped quickly while some of it takes longer to be absorbed. Even though the book is geared toward laboratory instruments the material can easily be applied to just about any controlled devices.Update 3-2015:I misplaced this book and had to purchase it again. I can't imagine being without it. The more I use this book the more I find that it helps me with my projects. Initially I designed a RIMS control system using VB6 and my communications needs were not overly intense; however, I recently embarked on a home automation project involving VB6 and an Arduino and suddenly I needed a refresher on RS232 communications. My current project involves a heavy amount of two-way data transfers and this book has given me the direction I needed to make it happen. An added bonus in this book is the treatment of state machines and state diagrams. I guess we all use state logic to some degree in our programs but this book goes into a fair amount of detail in explaining how to design around states rather than including a few here and there. This is an amazing value and worth buying. Of interest to VB.Net users: this book is to be released for the NET platform soon and should sell quite briskly. I will be in line for my copy!

Still in the process of reading but it's OK. The examples given are a bit simple and better 'coding' examples are better in the MS Language Reference books.

Great. Needs to be updated to Visual Studio 2015

Excellent text for engineers seeking to interface their projects with the PC. I waited for a long time for a text like this to emerge. It contains all the practical stuff you won't see in generic computer science texts. Highly reccommended.

Very good book