7v firmware update
Alicat mass flow controller showing new advanced setup menu
We’ve just made it easier to use your Alicat mass flow meters and pressure controllers from their front panels. This post has all the details on our 7v firmware update, which features a more intuitive user interface.
If you’ve been with Alicat for very long, you’ve seen us add new menu selections to our flow and pressure instruments from time to time. We incorporated these features into a set of “Miscellaneous” menus (MISC1 and MISC2) in order to preserve the existing interface. However, after filling up MISC1 and MISC2 with new functions, we decided it was time to give the entire menu system an intuitive update.
Here to explain the motive behind these changes is Brian Clendenin, Alicat’s Senior Software Engineer:
One goal of a good menu system is to make settings easy to find, so it became time to review the overall structure of the menus. We endeavored to organize the settings in ways that would be more intuitive to new and existing users alike, so that the changes would outweigh the inconvenience of learning the new locations.As Alicat has added more functionality to our instruments, the idea was to make minimal changes to existing buttons in the menus. While this was reasonable for each small change, so many changes built up over the past few years that some related functions became scattered across multiple menus. This made the menus more challenging to navigate and to remember.
Menu changes
- A new BASIC CONFIG menu allows easy access to GAS SELECT, DEVICE UNITS and STP/NTP options. The GAS menu option also displays the currently selected gas.
- A new TARES menu gives you access to flow and pressure tares, plus AUTO TARE.
- A new ABOUT menu collects DEVICE INFO, DEVICE STATE and MFG INFO in one place.
- The contents of the old MISC, MISC1 and MISC2 menus can now be accessed via the ADV SETUP menu, with the exception of STP/NTP, which is now in BASIC CONFIG.
| Features | Menu location |
| AUTO TARE | MENU > TARES |
| CONTROL SETUP | MENU > CONTROL |
| DEVICE UNITS | MENU > BASIC CONFIG |
| DIAG TEST | MENU > ABOUT > DEVICE STATE |
| FLOW AVG | MENU > ADV SETUP > SENSOR SETUP |
| GAS SELECT | MENU > BASIC CONFIG > GAS |
| LCD CONTRAST | MENU > ADV SETUP > DISP SETUP |
| MFG DATA | MENU > ABOUT > MFG INFO |
| MODEL INFO | MENU > ABOUT > DEVICE INFO |
| PRESS AVG | MENU > ADV SETUP > SENSOR SETUP |
| ROTATE DISP | MENU > ADV SETUP > DISP SETUP |
| RS232 COMM | MENU > ADV SETUP > COMM SETUP |
| STP/NTP | MENU > BASIC CONFIG |
| TARE P w/BARO | MENU > TARES > TARE PRESS |
| ZERO BAND | MENU > ADV SETUP > SENSOR SETUP |
For more information on the 7v firmware update, please read the FAQ for the 7v firmware. You can also contact us at 888-290-6060 or info@alicat.com with any additional questions.