Flow Controller

• Overview

• Settings

• Implementations

Overview

A FlowController is a device that oversees the operation of a series of mass flow controllers with an optional pressure sensor. They typically support two modes of operation: controlling gases at fixed flow rates, or maintaining a constant ratio of flow rates while regulating the total flow rate to sustain a target pressure read by a pressure sensor. Blackchirp records the names and setpoints of all enabled gases at the start of the experiment, and reads the flow rates and/or pressure as Auxiliary data.

Settings

• channels (menu): Settings for the individual flow channels. - decimals (int): Number of decimal places to display for channel N. - max (double): Maximum flow rate for channel N. - units (string): Units to be displayed on UI and recorded in files for channel N.

• intervalMs (int): The polling interval, in ms. Enabled channels are polled sequentually, one per polling interval.

• pressureDecimals (int): Number of decimal places to be displayed for the pressure.

• pressureMax (double): Maximum pressure for pressure sensor.

• pressureUnits (string): Units to be displayed on UI and recorded in files for pressure.

Implementations

Virtual (virtual)

A dummy 4-channel implementation.

MKS 647C (mks647c)

A 4-channel device with a built-in PID controller for maintaining a target pressure. The communication protocol is RS232.

MKS 946 (mks946)

A newer model from MKS which is a modular platform supporting different combinations of mass flow controllers and pressure sensors. The Blackchirp implementation assumes 4 flow channels and 1 pressure channel. The communication protocol is RS232.