MI(ROPROCESSOR BASED INSTRUMENTATION AND COTNROL

Abstract

The advent of microprocessors in 1971 has touched off a stir in the technological world. . Microprocessors are best suited to situations where fairly large amount of data or information is to be manipulated arithmatically or logically. Such situation are encountered in process control and business data processing. Because of their declining costs, microprocessors have been incorporated in instruments, Video games and desk top computers also. In this dissertation, a brief survey, of the instruments and control systems based on microprocessors, has been presented, As a specific case of application of microprocessors in instruments, soft-ware developed for an automatic weighing and pricing machine is presented. The machine gets the weight in digital form from an A/D converter and the price per unit weight is entered in standard BCD format from a keyboard. The software manipulates this data and computes the total price to be paid. The weight, price/unit weight and total price are printed on paper automatically. Some features which can be added to the present system are also listed. It is hoped that the system, in its present form, would be of great assistance to shopkeepers. A large market exists for such instruments.