GRAPHICAL PROGRAM TO DISPLAY A TESTBED BLOCK DIAGRAM WITH REAL-TIME DATA ON AN IBM PERSONAL-COMPUTER

A graphical program called TESTBED was written in Pascal in summer 1985 for NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio. TESTBED displays on an IBM Personal Computer/XT a block diagram of the dc testbed for the power management and distribution system for the space station. When the testbed, which will contain photovoltaic arrays, batteries, and loads, is deployed in the field, it will be permanently connected to the IBM PC/XT via direct memory access. Sensors attached to the testbed in the field will continually collect and update data in real time. The program will superimpose the real-time data on the block diagram of the testbed displayed on the screen of the IBM PC/XT. The program uses procedures contained in Metawindow, a software package of graphics utilities written by Metagraphics Corp. , Mountain View, California.