Leveraging iLab to serve client-less online laboratories for electronics

This paper describes the study of creating clientless online interfaces for laboratories served through the iLab publishing system. Given the increased usage of the iLab Shared Architecture, for example the launch of the new iLab Europe website ( http://ilab-europe.net/ ) it seems like a good opportunity to study the potential of the iLab software. At present, iLab interfaces are being built using various third party plug-ins, however, because it is really a web application these shortcomings can be eliminated by using standard front-end programming techniques. By client-less interfaces we mean any web interface that is served on the web which does not require any installation for the end-user other than a modern web browser. The support application for this paper features three remote experiments that range from the analysis of a light dependent resistor to the study of filters. The main piece of hardware used is the ME3200 Electronic Instrumentation and Measurement toolkit developed by Dreamcatcher. The device is an educational aid for studying electronics. Measurements and powering will be handled by Agilent devices. These devices can be controlled by a computer, therefore are an important part in enabling remote-control on the experimental set-up, by means of LabVIEW applications and various back-end web programming technologies.