A mobile remote data collection and graphics display station

A low cost graphic and data collection facility consisting of a storage tube display, plotter, digital multimeter, floppy disc, calculator and BCD instrumentation interface has been built into a single, mobile unit. Laboratory data may be collected automatically by recording the output of the low speed digital multimeter or medium speed BCD DMA interface in calculator memory and then buffering the data to either floppy disc or tape cassette. The data can be summarized and displayed immediately on the CRT or plotter by the calculator using programs available on a floppy disc resident library. Alternatively, the data can be routed to one of two timesharing computer systems at speeds up to 9600 baud where 2-D and 3-D software packages and large application libraries can be used to construct more sophisticated displays for presentation interactively on the CRT. Various applications appropriate to a university environment are discussed. A similar facility at the Sacramento offices of the Army Corps of Engineers used for flood information reporting is also described.