FiPS RLab Documentation
(c) 2001 by Daniel
Roth, FiPS/Department of Physics, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
What is it all about?
License
System Requirements
Installation
Working with the System
If you posses a CASSY-S CBL interface box (see Leybold Didactic GmbH), the RLab Software makes it possible to publish an experiment on the Internet. The following two screenshots of an example implementation of the system (a remote controlled lab for the diffraction of electrons available at http://www.fernstudium-physik.de/rlab) shows how people can either control the experiment with their web browser...
...or watch other people do the experiment by the means of streaming video:
All you need to do this is a CASSY-S compatible experiment, a Sensor CASSY-S, a Power CASSY-S, and a Windows computer with network connection and connected webcam or video capture system:
You are allowed to use the FiPS RLab software for free, as long as you do use it for non commercial purposes. If you want to use it for commercial purposes, you have to ask fips@physik.uni-kl.de for permission first. In any case you will use the software completely on your own risk, you will not make us (the author, University of Kaiserslautern) responsible in any way for any damage you might experience by downloading, installing and/or using the software.
In order to use the FiPS RLab software you need a computer with the following things installed:
Hardware Software PC with..
... Internet or Intranet access
... Microsoft Windows Operating System (95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP)
... Microsoft Windows compatible video capture device (e.g. webcam)Webserver software (e.g. Microsoft Personal Webserver)
Download and execute the "rlab.exe" file. After the execution you will find the following directory structure on your harddisk:
Move this folder to wherever you want and publish the "html" folder and its subfolders with your webserver software. In your webserver software you have to register .exe files as CGI executables. If you choose"rlab" as publishing alias your RLab system will then be available at "http://localhost/rlab/index.html".
In order to get the system working follow the following steps:
Executing the "rlabserver.exe" software will result in the popping up of the following window:
Click onto "Configure Remote Lab Server" and configure the RLab software according to your needs in the appearing configuration menu:
The "Parameter Sets" refer to the Sensor CASSY-S analog voltage inputs #1 (upper side) and #2 (lower side). Choose which input you want to publish on the Internet and choose the appropriate name, unit, input source and range. Click onto "Enable Parameter Set" to publish the input on the Internet. Make also sure that you have selected the appropriate serial port, the CASSY-S is connected to.
If you want to supply the RLabViewer Applet embedded into the "Take a Look" webpage with an overlay image you can copy such an image with the size of 320x240 and a transparent background color in GIF format into the "html\takealook" folder and rename it to "grid.gif". Open "http://yourhost/rlab/index.html" to access your remote controlled lab.
If the remote controlled lab appears to be busy all the time, you can reset it by opening "http://yourhost/rlab/cgi/rlabadmin.exe"
If you need support, please send an email to fips@physik.uni-kl.de.
You can download the latest RLab version by use of the following form field. As we would like to know who is using the FiPS RLab software it would be nice to provide us with your name, email address and institution. This information will not be given away to third parties and may help us to know if it is worth to continue development.
Please allow some seconds for the download to start, thank you!
Btw.: We would love to get some feedback!
If you are experiencing download problems, please contact fips@physik.uni-kl.de
ACHTUNG: Die Software wird zur Zeit überarbeitet und steht nicht zur Verfügung!
