Accessing front panel LEDs in several subVIs

Hi, I'm new to LabVIEW! Ok, what I'm trying to do is create a front panel with 9 LEDs. Then I have a Menu Ring, with three different options. These options determine the order in which the LEDs are lit. So what I was planning on doing was creating three subVIs, one for each of the options...but how can I do that when I only have one boolean for each LED? So basically how can I relate the LEDs on the front panel into the subVIs? I tried using globals - but it seemed like that just passed on the state of the boolean instead of allowing me to actually change the boolean in the subVI. I hope this makes sense...I'm really confused! Thanks for any help!

> Hi, I'm new to LabVIEW! Ok, what I'm trying to do is create a front
> panel with 9 LEDs. Then I have a Menu Ring, with three different
> options. These options determine the order in which the LEDs are lit.
> So what I was planning on doing was creating three subVIs, one for
> each of the options...but how can I do that when I only have one
> boolean for each LED? So basically how can I relate the LEDs on the
> front panel into the subVIs? I tried using globals - but it seemed
> like that just passed on the state of the boolean instead of allowing
> me to actually change the boolean in the subVI. I hope this makes
> sense...I'm really confused! Thanks for any help!
Initially, you might just hook your ring to a case structure to
determine which frame exe
cutes. You can put the terminals for the
Booleans in the different diagrams and about the only other thing to
keep in mind is that you probably want a delay in the loop.
Greg McKaskle

Similar Messages

Can I Bind a Front Panel LED to a specific element in an array of booleans?

In LabVIEW 2010 I have a string of LEDs. I have and array of boolean values that contain the values that the LEDs should indicate.
What is the best way to connect the LEDs to elements in the array of booleans?
Can I Bind a Front Panel LED to a specific element in an array of booleans?
How is this done?
Can anyone show sample code?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Imagine that you have an I/O card that provides 128, 256 or 1024 digital inputs and the requirement is to have an LED on the front panel to represent the state of each digital input. This frequently occurs.
Wiring that many digital inputs individually is a royal pain and then some !
It would make sense to have one shared variable as an array of Booleans that represents the status of all inputs and then use data binding instead of wiring each individually. The individually wiring would violate all recommendations on diagram size and fan out.
Frequently scanned For loops to update all of the LEDS would take alot of CPU time.
Wouldn't it be MUCH better if PSP could be used to update the LEDs whenever the data changed (as it is supposed to do) ?
In my case I have a LabVIEW Yaskawa servo driver that provides me information about 16 servo drives that may be connected. I have LEDs on the front panel to represent some of that status for each individual drive. But Yaskawa provides the information on the drives as an array of clusters of information for each drive, which I perform some business logic on and turn into shared array of Booleans to feed the LEDs (and some banks of switches as well).
Unfortunately LabVIEW does not seem to have any way to bind the LEDs (and Switches) to individual elements in the shared array of Booleans. It is just not that smart. Even with only several banks of 16 LEDs and Switches, wiring them individually using Decimate Array of Index Array functions is a royal pain and makes the block diagrams very large. It would be much worse and almost unreasonable to do if the size of the information was much larger.

Front Panel LEDs problems for Mega 180

Hi, it's rigth one year I got a Mega 180, and I've not ended yet to tune and optimize it
I admit it's like a hobby now
I immediately ask you for my LEDs problems.
I have read many topics and maybe other people have the same my problem, also if I'm not sure if they treat about the Front Panel LEDs when they speak about the "LCD Display".
I have some switched off LEDs in my front panel, in the "time" displayng and in the volume bar: I have to substituite them? Someone have done it before? It's possible to remove the front panel or I have to disasseble all the pc
Or it's a firmware problem?
I also thank all people that cured the section of optical devices compatibility: last week I bought a new Pioneer 111D, because my LG GSA-4167B was not suitable in the PC mode, for DVD playback.
In fact I had many problems for the DVD fluently playback: I have spent 4 months trying new video codecs and also substituting the video card, then I finally have understood that was an optical device problem.
The Pioneer 111D was perfect in the PC mode, but then I had problems for HI-FI playing mode
Then I finally used my old Pioneer 108, that I had in the old desktop, and all work (I pray) fine both in HI-FI and PC mode.
I'll be very happy also to describe to whom that will ask me, my experience with the Mega 180 "assembling", during the last year, hoping it could be useful for other people.
Thanx

> Hi, I'm new to LabVIEW! Ok, what I'm trying to do is create a front
> panel with 9 LEDs. Then I have a Menu Ring, with three different
> options. These options determine the order in which the LEDs are lit.
> So what I was planning on doing was creating three subVIs, one for
> each of the options...but how can I do that when I only have one
> boolean for each LED? So basically how can I relate the LEDs on the
> front panel into the subVIs? I tried using globals - but it seemed
> like that just passed on the state of the boolean instead of allowing
> me to actually change the boolean in the subVI. I hope this makes
> sense...I'm really confused! Thanks for any help!
Initially, you might just hook your ring to a case structure to
determine which frame exe
cutes. You can put the terminals for the
Booleans in the different diagrams and about the only other thing to
keep in mind is that you probably want a delay in the loop.
Greg McKaskle

Publising front panels of not visible subvis on the web

High
my main program has tab object with 10 pages. Within the main program there are several subvis whose front panels i want to publish on the web.
The front panels of these subvis are not visible in the main program. Front panels of some subvis are displayed correctly in browser (IE, Firefox) but some not.
Fields of the object are empty or their fields are not refresh with new data (att. pict " array indicators").
The problem is worse if not visible subvi contains chart object. In the browser window data are moved out of the chart window (att. pict. "chart within...").
For monitoring front panels of the subvis i use MONITOR mode of the LabVIEW web server.
Any idea, hints or simple example is welcome.
Thanks and regards
Trajan
Attachments:
chart within the browser2.jpg ‏16 KB
three array indicators2.jpg ‏5 KB

Duplicate post!
Best regards,
GerdW
CLAD, using 2009SP1 + LV2011SP1 + LV2014SP1 on WinXP+Win7+cRIO
Kudos are welcome

Controlling Front Panel LEDs

This is hopefully a simple problem, but I can't figure out what to search under. I have a program with two loops (Z Only Test and Full Test in Tester Program v2). They do not run at the same time. I would like both loops to interact with an LED on the front panel (Testing). How is this done?
Under Z Only Test, it works fine. I tried to connect it to the sequence (Full Test), but it tells me I can't do that. On odd sequences, for the most part, I would like to have the LED light (TRUE). On evens, off.
Attachments:
code.zip ‏143 KB

rbergs wrote:
Do you mean make the LED a shared variable? How do you do that? I clicked on it and changed it to a variable, but I thought that was like one of the others that I have. I'll give it a try and see what happens.
I would assume whatever works for this would also work for numerical displays as well.
No. I'm not even sure exactly what you mean by clicked on the LED "and changed it to a variable."
Right now you have only a single place where you use that LED. It has a terminal node on your block diagram within a while loop. I don't know how that fits into your overall program architecture as your VI is quite expansive. (Two tips, 1. Don't use stacked sequences. 2. Look into a state machine architecture)
All that happens at that point is your read from a shared variable called "Testing". I'm not sure from where else in your VI that you want to interact with that front panel indicator. Or whether it will conflict with the already written piece of code. I also don't know where this shared variable is written to. But the first idea is have the other sections of the code write to the shared variable and let this one update the front panel indicator.
The second idea is to create a local variable of the front panel indicator. Right click on the terminal within your code and select Create / Local Variable. But again, you will have to be careful with conflicts with the different portions of your code writing to the LED. This is also known as a "race condition".
(Yes you can use either shared variables to store numeric data, or create local variables of numeric controls or indicators.)
I'm a bit nervous about your code. It looks like you have a decent amount of LV experience as you have created quite a sophisticated VI there. However, it doesn't seem like it is easy to expand or modify. It takes up quite a bit of screen real estate. It doesn't use any subVI's even though a lot of the code seems to be duplicated or very similar. And it seems like it uses a lot of shared variables, probably more than necessary.
Message Edited by Ravens Fan on 05-29-2009 01:38 PM

Error 1032 accessing Front panel reference on 6.1 EXE from 7.1.1f2

I am installing a Data Acquisition system developed in 7.1.1f2 (.net 2.0 patched). The system has 4 device drivers reading data from different components (SCXI DAQ, OPC/DSTP, DLL Library, and a Labview 6.1 executable) When I got on site, I modified the 6.1 EXE's INI file to allow TCP access to * and export * on a specified port. The driver accessing the 6.1 EXE was reading the digital values correctly but I also needed to read XY Graphs along with the plot configurations and coloration. I then wrote a simple debug VI that Connects to the 6.1 EXE's Win 2000 Machine the Application reference succeeded, I open a reference to the exported main vi and seem to access all the properties and methods of the VI except the Front Panel calls. Some of the calls return invalid data (read this is the default result if an error is encountered)and when I try to get the Front panel reference I get error 1032. I need to get this working in order to get the control references of the waveform graphs, in order to get the plot information.
Things I tried:
1 - I have tried accessing the FP reference from a different machine running LV 7.1 but still get the same error.
2 - The 6.1 EXE belongs to our client and we cannot modify it, but I have reinstalled it from the backups with no change.
I don't have any idea how to proceed..
What else can I verify on the remote VI server, Is there another way to read the plot data from a graph? (VI ref --> Get control value mostly works untill the fill color changes on the plots)
Any Help / guidance would be appreciated.
Darcy

Hello Darcy-
It sounds like you are running into a common problem when trying to access a front panel on a remote executabel. The following KB gve a bit more clarification on teh nature of the problem adn a possible workaround. The workaround will require modification of the EXE you wish to control, and it sounds like that may not be an option for you.
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/B36BCCBFEBECF4F486256C69005D49C3?OpenDocument
If the Vi you wish to communicate with is not written to share its data in any way, it is going to be difficult/impossible to read the the waveform vales from that VI.
Xaq
Message Edited by Xaq on 11-21-2006 03:29 PM

Accessing front Panel in VB

Hello
I want to access the LabVIEW front panel in VB how it is possible ?

There's an Excel example that ships with LabVIEW that you can take a look at. It's in the "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.1\examples\comm" directory. Open the spreadsheet called "freqresp.xls".
Also, attached is a crude VB example done is VS.NET 2003 (you didn't specify which VB version)
Attachments:
LabVIEW Test.zip ‏58 KB

Front panel led connectors cables problem

Anyone knows how to connect the cables for the front panel power and hdd switches and leds to the jumpers on the board? The cables have wordings printed on one side of the cables (power led.. hdd led.. etc).. i'm not sure which side should be facing up on the board ... is it the side with the wordings facing up or the opposite side without the printed wordings ? i'm worried that i may end up short circuiting the board if i connec them the wrong way round ... thanks

The are just switches, so there is no polarity to worry about. the led's are polarity sensitive, so If they don't work, just reverse the connection; no damage will occur.

How statechart can access front panel dynamic input

How can I get the value of a control (as set by the user) on a calling VI Front Panel to evaulate/use within a state Exit while loop in of a called StateChart?

I started with the async statechart example -- contains trigger loop and a statechart loop. Inside the statechart loop there is a Run Statechart. Also in this loop are my inputs to the Statechart. Everything is good so far. As each state is entered, the correct input is obtained. Then I added a PID.vi inside a loop to one of the state action tabs. When that particular state is entered and the PID loop runs, I no longer get updated input values. I've tried to copy and reference the Inputs onto the action tab diagram to no avail.
I've attached my VI and lvsc for some hopeful assistance.
Attachments:
BrewLab.vi ‏86 KB
BrewLab.lvsc ‏496 KB

How do I derive front panel led's from kstat?

/* compile with cc enclosure.c -lkstat */
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <kstat.h>
#include </usr/platform/sun4u/include/sys/envctrl.h>
main()
kstat_ctl_t*kc;
kstat_t *kp;
envctrl_encl_t *enc_info;
int i;
/* initialize the kstat interface */
kc = kstat_open();
if (kc == 0) {
perror("kstat_open");
exit(1);
/* find the inode cache link */
kp = kstat_lookup(kc, "envctrl", 0, "envctrl_enclosure");
if (kp == 0) {
fputs("Cannot find envctrl.0.envctrl_enclosure\n", stderr);
exit(1);
/* read the ks_data */
if (kstat_read(kc, kp, 0) == -1) {
perror("kstat_read");
exit(1);
printf("there are %d instances\n",kp->ks_ndata);
enc_info = (envctrl_encl_t *) kp->ks_data;
for (i=0; i < kp->ks_ndata; i++){
printf("loop value : %d\n",i);
printf("instance : %d\n", enc_info->instance);
printf("enclosure type : %d \n", enc_info->type);
printf("enclosure value : %d \n",enc_info->value);
printf("********************\n");
enc_info++;
kstat_close(kc);
return 0;
Returns...
There are 7 instances
enclosure value : 208
or
enclosure value : 192
depending whether one of the lights is flashing or not. I need to know how to tell if an error light is on.
How about the disk led's?

You don't actually need to pass anything to the Sub-VI.
Within the Sub-VI you can call up the chain of "higher" VIs, i.e. the VI call chain leading to the sub-VI in question being called. From here you can wire simply the text of the VI you require to an "Open VI reference" function, get a list of the controls or indicators and initialise them as you wish. I used this a few times for a custom "Print Parent Panel" VI.
Here's a pic of an example (LV 6.1)
Hope this helps
Shane.
Using LV 6.1 and 8.2.1 on W2k (SP4) and WXP (SP2)
Attachments:
SUB-VI-parent communications.png ‏19 KB

MCS 7845-H2 Front Panel LED's

Trying to find some sort of support document for this server model to get an understanding of what the LED's mean, as one of them has just turned amber (which according to this ( http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6790/ps5748/ps378/product_data_sheet0900aecd80572766.html ) it indicates an internal component failure.

There's no setting to adjust the brightness of the LED.
Next time you are near an office supply store, pick up a box of 3/8" or1/2" round, white labels/stickers.
Place one or two over the LED and it will dim the LED. Add more to adjust the brightness level you want.
The white stickers are virtually invisible once you move back 3-4 feet from the AirPort Extreme.
Looks much nicer than a piece of tape.

32AV502U Front Panel LED Flashing, No Video/Audio

We had a short power outage last night and ever since my 32AV502U set will not turn on. Instead the power LED just flashes on and off in a patter of long, short, short. I have tried leaving it unplugged for hours and still no luck. I held the power button down while it was unplugged too, but couldn't get it to do anything other than just have the LED flash.
I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to fix this.
Thanks

I've got the same issue. I found this TV at the electronics recycling area of my local landfill, so I have nothing invested in it so far, except a bit of research time. I tried calling Toshiba Customer Service to see if they would tell me what the long short short flashing light means, but since it's out of warranty, they wanted to charge me $35 to answer the question. It looks like someone tried working on it already. I got Toshiba's Service Material and reference Tips document for this TV, and followed the section for Dead Set on page 5. I do get the standby 5 volts on the P802 connector, but following the flowchart to the next step, I do not get 4.3 volts on pin 13 when the on/off button is pressed. The next step at pin 14 showing less than .07V also fails. That results in a "Suspect a problem with the power supply module. There's no further module level troubleshooting that I could find.
None of the capacitors are bulging, so that takes away an easy check. There hasn't been much in the way of component level troubleshooting that I could find.

LEDs on front panel

Employed my Vista Pavilion for several years without incident until last night when I noticed the top "on/off" button which usually glows a light blue was unlit.   I originally assumed a power glitch, so I just restarted the machine to note the following:
    Fans come on and the power supply seems OK, but the system did not boot.   The screen was just black with no characters or image/background. In fact, the screen's power saving mode soon engaged indicating the video card was not sending a signal. Never get to the BIOS screens.
     Now here is what I think may be significant: the green LED and blue LED in the front console were on continuously.
Sometimes, hardware manufacturers provide diagnostic information by way of the lights (e.g., washing machines).   In other words, turning on LEDs can provide state information. Is this true with HP hardware?
Some more clues which tell you what is not the problem. I happened to have a new power supply handy, so I traded it out with the same results.   In normal operation, the green LED indicates disk activity, so I just removed the disk entirely to see if the green light would go out.   Nope, still on steady.   The blue LED typically implies the WiFi operation but I rather doubt at this pre-boot state the WiFi would be working.
I traced the power button line (two grey wires) to a half-sized board in the rear. No breaks in the wire or bad connections.
Any ideas?

HP Pavilion Elite m9357c Desktop PC
Motherboard Specification, MCP61PM-HM (Nettle3)
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docLocale=en_US&docId=emr_na-c01357175
Don't understand this reference to a half-height board.
The Front Panel Header (9-pin, 2x5) on the motherboard is where those front panel LEDs and buttons are terminated.
EXAMINE Pictorial in the Internet link to motherboard (above).
HOWEVER, some HP Desktop models have a front LED to show the user of LAN or Wi-Fi connections.
That wire would connect to the network card or motherboard via a different connector.
Some Media PCs of this era (2008) had Infared connections (option) for remote control of TV tuner option card.
LEDs do not last forever (have a long, but finite life) and can fail due to DC over-voltage or surge conditions (environmental, component failure).
In addition, this Desktop PC is now 7 years old .... a long-life for any desktop.
IF the motherboard has failed (component failure, such as capacitors), then replacement may be best advice.

Can't remove Front Panels in Application Builder

I have had a few issues using Application Builder (v7.1) in regards to it removing or not removing front panels for my subvi's when I was trying to compile. Here are the conclusions I came to if anyone else runs into the problems I had.
Problem 1) Some of the front panels were being removed for dynamically loaded VI's, which were not set as dynamic VI's in the Application Builder, but which were static-linked VI's in the program (so they were loaded in memory as linked subvi's but called dynamically). When the Application Builder decided to remove the front panel for those VI's, there was an error when loading them dynamically.
Problem 2) Some of the front panels were NOT being removed for subvi's that I didn't want to have their front panel built into the compiled program. Loading front panels that are not needed uses extra memory, but there was no way to change the option to not load the front panel for certain particular subvi's in Application Builder--the option was grayed out.
For problem 1, I decided not to worry about linking the files dynamically in the Application Builder, but to just make sure the Application Builder would include their front panels. For problem 2, I had to figure out what was making Application Builder force the front panels to be included when I deemed it unnecessary, so that I could fix them not to be included. Basically then, going through my VI's that were forcibly included, I came up with a list of stuff I began checking for each time I would run into one where I didn't want to include the front panel. I have attached my list to this post.
My solution for problem 1 was then to use a customized appearance for my static-linked / dynamically loaded VI's, and disable the menu bar (forces the front panel to be included by Application Builder without changing appearance, since I never actually see the FP). My solution for problem 2 was often to remove property nodes referencing text on the front panel controls. Sometimes I was able to perform a numeric->text or enum->text conversion instead of referencing the text of the control itself, and sometimes I realized I didn't want anything to change and that it was ok to include the front panel so I could (for example) get a list of strings for my enum control.
I have attached the reference list I came up with of things to check for to make sure your VI properties are set correctly if you are trying to get Application Builder NOT to include the front panel of your subvi. The list might not be complete, but it's helped me to narrow down things very quickly and find the problems I was having.
Attachments:
ThingsToCheck.doc ‏61 KB

m3nth wrote:
Problem 1) Some of the front panels were being removed for dynamically loaded VI's, which were not set as dynamic VI's in the Application Builder, but which were static-linked VI's in the program (so they were loaded in memory as linked subvi's but called dynamically). When the Application Builder decided to remove the front panel for those VI's, there was an error when loading them dynamically.
This is expected behaviour. The application has no way of knowing that these VIs will at some time be called dynamically. That would require analysing and understanding the entire program and in cases where you calculate the dynamic VI to be called at runtime it still wouldn't be feasable to do so.
m3nth wrote:
Problem 2) Some of the front panels were NOT being removed for subvi's that I didn't want to have their front panel built into the compiled program. Loading front panels that are not needed uses extra memory, but there was no way to change the option to not load the front panel for certain particular subvi's in Application Builder--the option was grayed out.
There are several reasons why a front panel is needed. One of them is when the VI is called dynamically, even if the FP is never displayed and AppBuilder will account for that for VIs which have been added as dynamic VI to the project.
The other is when a VI uses some Property Nodes or Attribute Nodes as they are called now.
So to solve your problem 1) you could also just drop some property node in the diagram of such VIs and be done with it.
Rolf Kalbermatter
Rolf Kalbermatter
CIT Engineering Netherlands
a division of Test & Measurement Solutions

Front Panel 3D Plot Object will not load

Hello Everyone,
I'm having a problem on a particular PC in our lab where, when I attempt to place the 3D graphing object, it does not appear on the front panel. The associated subVI objects appear in the block diagram but if I try to right click and select "Find Indicator" I see a grayed out sillouhette on the front panel with the text something like "cannot load object". I'm guessing this is an ActiveX issue (?). I am able to run on other PCs in our lab. Just wondering if anyone has a solution for this? Thanks.

Hello,
Thanks
for posting to the NI Discussion Forums.
I agree with you, this does sound a lot like an ActiveX issue. The issue likely came from the installation
of your version of LabVIEW on your lab computer. Which version of LabVIEW are you working
with, and are they the same versions on both computers? I have heard of this happening
before from users who did not install LabVIEW as an administrator – the activex
objects do not get registered and therefore cannot run. You might consider
uninstalling LabVIEW, and reinstalling (as an admin) and testing it again. It could also be related to some security
settings on your computer. Check that
activex containment is allowed by any sort of security software on your computer. Hopefully this will fix the issue – if not
please let us know!
Travis M
LabVIEW R&D
National Instruments

Accessing front panel LEDs in several subVIs

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