Practical Pharmaceutical Laboratory Automation 

0-84931814-9

978-0-84931814-6

B. Bissett, CRC Press, 2003, 464 pp., hard cover

MICROSOFT EXCEL VISUAL BASIC MACROS
The Importance of Consistent Laboratory Notebooks and Reports
Running VBA Macros in Excel
Setting Up a Microsoft Excel Visual Basic Macro
Getting the Data into Excel
Finding and Extracting Data
Analysis and Manipulation of Data
Activating Sheets within Different Workbooks
Creating a Custom Report Worksheet
Saving the Custom Report Worksheet
Creating an Uploadable File for a Database

ADVANCED MICROSOFT EXCEL VB MACRO TECHNIQUES
Using Hidden Workbooks to Store and Run Macros
Adding Custom Menu Items to Run Macros
Keeping a Macro from Crashing When a Cell has Invalid Data
Not all InputBoxes are Equal
Using Templates and GUIs
Opening and Using Other Applications within Excel
The Importance of "Idle Time"
The Magic of the "SendKeys" Statement
Exchanging Data between Excel and Other Applications
Programming Functions into Workbook Cells
Adding Drop Down Boxes to Worksheet Cells
Opening Files in Other Applications Using Macros
Interworkbook Recognition of Variables
Waiting for User Selections
The End: Closing all Nonhidden Workbooks
Saving Settings to the Windows Registry
Self Writing Macros

ROBOTIC AUTOMATION USING VISUAL BASIC
Communications Overview
The MSComm Control
Using the Timer Control
Deciphering a Communication Protocol
Sending a Command
Interpreting a Reply
Setting up a Que Using the Timer Control
Controlling Multiple Instruments from Differing Manufacturers
Hardware Considerations in Robotic Automation
Summary

LOW LEVEL HARDWARE INTERFACING USING VB
Controller Cards and Addressing
Installing and Using the PortIO DLL
Controlling Relays
The MEM-08 Relay Card
The MEM-32 Relay Card
The MBB-32 Digital I/O Card
The MAI-16 Analog Input Card
Discrete Time Measurement
Sampling Theory and the Nyquist Theorem
Aliasing
Sampling Limitations of Visual Basic
Sampling of Non Periodic Signals
Pseudo Continuous Time Measurement
Possible Causes of Inconsistent Data
Methods for Faster Acquisition
Adding Auxiliary Power to the Metrabus System
Summary

ELECTRONICS FOR AUTOMATION
Overview
Voltage Division
Diode Waveform Shaping
The Transistor
The Comparator
Compensating for Noise Effects with Hysteresis
Window Comparator
Peak Detection
Low Pass Filtering
Decoupling Capacitors
Creating Custom Instrument Interfaces
Liquid Level Sensing Circuits
Solenoid Valve Driver Circuits
Summary

ROBUST DATA ANALYSIS USING ORIGIN LAB'S ORIGIN
Labtalk Fundamentals
Button Scripts
Script Files
Passing Parameters in Labtalk
Curve Fitting Using the "nlsf" Commands
Harnessing Origin Remotely
Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) with VB
Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) with VBA

AGILENT (HP) CHEMSTATION MACRO WRITING
Basics of Chemstation Macro Writing
Chemstation Macro Variables
Using Macros as Functions and Subroutines
Tools to Aid Macro Writers
Registers, Objects and Tables
Loading Sequences into an HPLC
Loading Sequences which Contain both Plates and Vials
Exporting Data after each Sample is Analyzed
Exporting Actual XY Data from the Chromatograms
Adding Macros to Chemstation Menus
Some Generic Macros and Techniques
Summary