Patent ID: 7806137

Claim:
A control system for controlling the state of a plurality of valves formed in a valve block formed by a pressure manifold, a fluid transfer plate having grooves formed therein, and a flexible diaphragm positioned between the pressure manifold and the fluid transfer plate such that varying pressure through the pressure manifold at a plurality of points thereon distorts the flexible diaphragm to block or un-block the grooves in the fluid transfer plate, thereby forming valves, comprising: (a) a plurality of solenoids for controlling the pressure provided through the pressure manifold at the plurality of points thereon; (b) a computer programmed to provide a user interface to allow a user to select states of the plurality of valves and to convert the selected valve states into a bit stream; (c) a storage device comprising series connected shift registers in which the bit stream is shifted downstream in the series connected shift registers until sufficient shift registers are loaded with the bit stream representing the desired state for all the valves; and (d) a control circuit connected to the computer to receive the bit pattern therefrom and to load the bit pattern into the storage device.