VISPlus 2.X Users Manual

• Software Requirements
• Connecting Visual Plus To Your Computer
• Installing VISPlus Software On Your Computer
• Starting VISPlus Software
• Inspecting a Cylinder

Software Requirements

• IBM compatible computer running Windows 95/98/NT.
• At least 8MB RAM
• At least 2MB free hard drive disk space
• Printer supported by the operating system (not needed if not planning to print results)

Connecting Visual Plus To Your Computer

Connect the supplied Visual Plus computer cable to the computer cable port at the back of the Visual Plus unit and to the printer port of your computer. If you wish to use your printer to print reports, connect Visual Plus to LPT2 and the printer to LPT1. If your computer has only one printer port, connect Visual Plus and the printer to the computer printer port via an A/B switch box, and switch between them.

Installing VISPlus Software On Your Computer

• Locate the VisPlusSetup file on your hard drive.
• Double-click on the file.
• The self-extracting file will begin to install on your computer.
• Click Next on the first page of the installation program. Click Next again. Click Finish. At this point VISPlus is installed on your computer.
• If you have a previous version of VISPlus installed you can manually delete it.

Starting VISPlus Software

• Call up the VISPlus software by double-clicking on the VISPlus 2.X icon on the Desktop.
• Set acquisition settings by selecting 'Recording' from the menu and clicking on 'Acquisition Settings'.
  • Data port address corresponds to the address of the printer port to which Visual Plus module is attached. Typically if you have a single printer port it would be located at address 0x378 and if you have a printer and a second printer port for Visual Plus it would be located at 0x278. Some laptops and older computers may also have the port located at 0x3BC. The easiest way to tell which port address you have is to open Start->Settings->Control Panels->System->Devices Manager->Ports, select the printer port which is connected to Visual Plus module and click on properties. Select Resource from the tab on top of the window and note the first number in the 'Input/Output' range. Select this number in the data port address field of VISPlus software.
  • Samples per acquisition point field tells VISPlus to take specified number of readings for each point displayed on the screen. Higher value will slow down acquisition. The optimal value will depend on the speed of your computer. Values around 30 work well on Pentium-200Mhz. For slower computers you may want to reduce this value and for faster computers increase it.
  • Total acquisition points field determines the total duration of the experiment. Higher values will allow more time before inspection automatically stops.
• Selected acquisition settings are automatically saved into the registry and will be recalled next time the program is executed.

Inspecting a Cylinder

• Enter customer information on the left side of the screen
  • Customer - Customer name.
  • Serial Number - Serial number of the cylinder being inspected.
  • Inspected - Name of the person performing inspection.
  • Last Hydro - Date and place of the last hydrostatic test for this cylinder.
  • Last VISPlus - Date and place of the last VISPlus test for this cylinder.
  • Return Authorization Manufacturer - Optional field. If this cylinder fails the inspection you can enter the name of the cylinder manufacturer here.
  • Return Authorization Number - Optional field. If this cylinder fails the inspection you can enter the return authorization number you obtained from the cylinder manufacturer here.
• To record data completely insert probe into the cylinder neck threads. When you are ready to start inspection press F6. If the trace does not appear white or purple then VISPlus is not communicating with Visual Plus module properly. Slowly back out the probe from the cylinder. Ideally the trace should be close to the end of fourth line by the time you are finished with inspection. If you did not have enough time try increasing the Total Acquisition Points value in the Acquisition Settings dialog and running inspection again.
• To analyze the results please see the Cylinder Inspection section in the Visual Plus module owner's guide.
• Results of the VISPlus inspection can be easily printed using Ctrl-P, printer icon on the main toolbar or by selecting File->Print. The software will automatically select Landscape mode but if you need to use Portrait mode you can do so by selecting this mode under printer properties. To save data use Ctrl-S, save icon on the main toolbar or by selecting File->Save or File->Save As. When saving a new file, the file name will default to the cylinder serial number. If you are using another naming scheme you can do this before clicking on the save button.