EE with PLC & LabVIEW Programming - Pittsburgh PA

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“Why work for GE, Eaton, Bechtel, Westinghouse, Goodyear, John
Deere, Northrop, AstraZeneca, Medrad, PPG, Lockheed Martin, or the US
Government, when you can join DSA and work for all of them? Why pick a
job in oil & gas, telecommunications, alternative energy,
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Desperate user need help. My GPIB instrument get stuck with my labview program frequently

Hello to all labview users,
i am a beginner in using labview. I am currently writting a labview program to automatically control a digital control rotator HD201e and a network analyzer 8720a to work with the anechoic chamber. The program receives an initial position, amount of increment and # of steps. My program will then ask the controller to rotate to the initial position and at the meantime, the program will monitor the position of the rotator to ensure the requested position is reached. After that, at the position, the program will ask the NA to perform a reading of the measurement. Once the reading is done, the program will ask the controller to rotate to the next position and does a reading of the measurement and so on.
My program seems to be able to perform the tasks; however, the dig.controller part seems to get stuck around 50% of the time when running the program. Sometimes, even the controller receives the requested position (can be seen from the lcd screen of the controller), the rotator just simply would not rotate; also, sometimes, the controller just simply does not respond when sending the command of moving a position, as in the debug mode (the one with a lightbulb), i see that i got "ok" on all the blocks in the writing portion ofthe program, but the controller just doesnt seem to receive the position (as seen no new position received from the lcd screen) and the cursor on the lcd screen blinks weirdly, due to that problem, my program will then get stuck in an infinite loop.....
Usually, that problem occurs after few positions have been reached.....
so, when that happens, i have to stop my program and re-run it. that means the program will have to re-do the measurement that were read previously....
sometimes i have to stop and re-run my program several times to get all the measurement of all the positions done.....so...that bug renders that program to be an unefficient program.
I have been trying to resolve that bug for weeks...but no success....i have tried to put some wait time between each block....result is not much different...
I have also tried putting "clear" block before and after the "write" block.....same problem.....
I have heard that the serial GPIB "flush" block may help...but i tried..but it seems the controller doesnt recognize/accept flush....
i have also tried using the "Visa open" and "Visa close" block to see if ithat reduces the stucking thing....but seems that the controller can still get stuck....
i have also even tried using "lock asyn" and "unlock asyn" block...but didnt seem to work....
Has anyone experienced such problem.? Is it a known problem with some gpib instrument?
Is there any discrepancy or bugs in my program that i am unaware of that causes this problem?
Any advice and or opinion would be greatly appreciated....
PS: i attached the controller part of my program and the overall program
desperate happyguy......
Happy guy
~ currently final year undergraduate in Electrical Engr. Graduating soon! Yes!
~ currently looking for jobs : any position related to engineering, labview, programming, tech support would be great.
~ humber learner of LabVIEW lvl: beginner-intermediate
Attachments:
HD201_Controld.jpg ‏231 KB
AChamber_Measurements_v1d.jpg ‏857 KB
AChamber_Measurements_v1d3.jpg ‏463 KB

hi xseadog
i got what you meant about the gpib reference
actually, that final frame works because the gpib reference is already done inside that subvi.
but my problem doesnt arise from that. most of the time ive seen, it arises between the writing frame and the while loop frame. as i mentionned, sometimes. the controller just simply doesnt rotate even i can see the requested position display on the controller lcd screen; also sometimes, just the controller is stuck without acknowledging the write position command. but in labview...while in debug mode. it is shown ok on the block.
Happy guy
~ currently final year undergraduate in Electrical Engr. Graduating soon! Yes!
~ currently looking for jobs : any position related to engineering, labview, programming, tech support would be great.
~ humber learner of LabVIEW lvl: beginner-intermediate
Attachments:
HD-201 RPosd.jpg ‏39 KB

How to link third party software with labview program ?

I have designed a labview
program to analyse and make
graph and save the datas
from the photon counter using
ni USB DAQ 6008. And the
photon counter is controlled
by the third party software with
itself. both programs are
executing successfully. But
my task is run both the
program at the same time. i.e.
link the third party software
with my labview program.
How to i do this?

Your question is too vague since you give no information as to this third party application. Is it an application you wrote? Is it an application that you cannot change? Does it have a programming interface? Can you eliminate this third-party application and control the photon counter yourself? Have you tried to do a search, as this question has come up before many times. For example:
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/how-do-I-use-labview-to-control-other-programs/m-p/424765
http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-to-operate-another-application-s-GUI-from-LV/m-p/668088

Can I communicate with two different FP 1000 modules through one labview program at the same time

I am wondering could you communicate with two seperate FP 1000 modules with one labview program, using a tab control, with page 1 of the tab communicating with one FP 1000 through com port 1 and page 2 of the tab control communicating with another FP 1000 module through com port 4, using different iak files for both. Can I do it through using those wireless modems supplied by National Instruments. Sorry I dont have a name for them.

Noely,
Within a single IAK file, you can have multiple FieldPoint modules on separate COM ports. There is no need to use separate IAKs for the program you are describing. Actually, older versions of NI-FieldPoint do not support having multiple IAKs in use simultaneously (I am not sure whether it is currently supported).
As for the Radio Modems, they are called SRM-6000s and can be used simultaneouslyon different serial ports. Although, using the SRM-6000 in a single master multi slave arrangement, you could use a single serial port to talk to both FP-1000s (3 SRMs total). You will need to configure the FP-1000s to have separate addresses (DIP Switch setting).
Regards,
Aaron

Labview Program will hang between 33% and 50% of the time.

I have a problem with a Labview program I made. I have two programs that do the same thing. One is in flat sequence form and the other is in state machine form.
As explained in the link below, I would like to make use of a microcontroller to make wiring connections for automating a measurement process. A separate current source and volt meter will be used.
https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Sequence-a-good-idea/td-p/2601333
I have since made some simple test programs which I have attached. The problem is when executing, the labview program will hang, but not every time the program is execute.
For example: Hall 1.2.vi will work properly twice with the third time it is executed it will hang. If you abort and try again, it will again run twice with no problems with the third hanging. This one is in flat sequence format (was in a flat sequence, but merged the windows because I thought that was the cause). From what I can tell, the program will hang when calling Keithley 6517 Single Read.vi. Both connected Keithley devices are connected to the computer via GPIB at 16 and 27. The way I verified if it was this vi causing it or contributing to it was that I removed it and the program never hung. I find it very strange that it will hang exactly on the third attempt every time.
Hall 1.3 simple.vi will work the first time and hang the second time. So it works 50% of the time. This one is in State Machine format. This one will hang at the case titled "Measure 1" which contains the Keithley 6517 Single Read.vi.
I've used the highlight execution button and watched the program run. Oddly, it doesn't hang when using this button. So I tried adding delays/wait in different places to no avail.
What could be causing this? As a side note, I say the program hangs for two reason. The main one is the program doesn't finish running so the run arrow is still black. The second thing is that if you notice at the end of the labview program, I have a block there that turns the current source off which doesn't happen when it hangs. I have to manually turn it off and then hit the abort program button to stop labview.
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
Hall 1.2.vi ‏42 KB
Hall 1.3 simple.vi ‏81 KB

altenbach wrote:
SaintsFan wrote:
Also, I've tried placing wait/delays at various places with no improvement of the problem. My next thought is to just remove all the vi calls and have everything in one program.
How did you place the waits?
Why would placing everything in one program fix the problem. That makes no sense! What is your reasoning?
In the case of hall1.3, I placed a wait in the Measurement cases and CS On cases and there was no affect. In the hall 1.2 when the blocks were broken up similar to the state machine cases where each sequence window was identical to the cases, I placed a wait or delay in each window with no effect on the hanging.
My reasoning for placing everything in one program is the same as my reasoning for figuring delays would help, since the time of execution would be altered. If the execution time is faster and if the timing is the problem then I figured that the problem would happen more frequently or even every time.
Somehow I get the feeling this is not the case. The reason being the interval in which it succeeds or hangs is constant. I believe somewhere, a value is getting set. The 6517 Read vi runs fine if I run this vi by itself no matter how many or how fast I run it. Also, the same goes for both 1.2 and 1.3 if I remove the 6517 read vi they run fine no matter how fast or how many times I run them.
Somehow after the current source is set to operate and triggers labview will hang on a set interval when calling 6517 read vi.
Separately they work, together there is a problem. I tried placing a delay between these two by connecting the error out of the trigger vi to the error in of the delay block and the error out of the delay block to the error in terminal of the 6517 config block. I've also tried delays between other blocks connected the same way. From what I understand, a called vi can't execute until all inputs are present. Is this the correct way to wire the delays?

Labview programing problem

Hi, i have problem with my labview programing which in associate with cRio-9025
which also doing the data acquisition of temperature.
below is my programing, pls help me to check on it, see error
did i made.
Apprecite it, thanks
Attachments:
asas.png ‏435 KB

Hi, as Apok has mentioned, if you click on the run arrow it will come up with a list of errors and some explanation.
on a quick look though;
you have an error on the TDMS file open block - the operation constant is shown with a otted line (and seems to be spelt incorrectly).
only one input of the build array in the timed loop is connected
the TDMS file out isn't wired in the case statement (TRUE case) in your while loop
not necessarily an error, but the shift register storing erros isn't wired up in the input to the loop so will only pass through an error on the last iteration
It's also not an error, but bad practise to use flat sequence structures to control program flow - you're better off using data flow to manage things if possible. You could leave the first flat sequence in place to initialise variables, wire the error cluster line to both loops and remove the other two flat sequences.
Regards
Paul
Regards
Paul
CLD running LabVIEW 2012 32 & 64 bit on Windows 7 64 bit OS.

No video at startup of Labview program gives me error. How do I automatically reacquire periodically?

I have a PCI 1411 running Labview NI-IMAQ 3.0. I am hooked to a military infrared device. I need to be able to power on the camera with a Labview program. Therefore, I have no video at startup and need to be able to acquire once I start. Now, if no video is running when I start, I never see video and I get an acquisition error. What should I do? Thanks!

This depends on how you plan to power on the camera. Are going to switch the AC power to the camera, toggle a digital enable line, or send a serial command? Without knowing how this camera works it's difficult to say how to turn it on, but more than likely LabVIEW (with the right hardware) will acommodate your camera.
Once you have the camera powered, you can proceed with the acquisition as normal. If there's no way to know whether the camera is powered, you could just call a snap command in a loop periodically and exit when you no longer see an error or you get tired of waiting.
Cheers,
Brent

How does labview opc communication with plc affect timing for the actual plc application

Hi Everyone,
I have a doubt and thus want to start a discussion regarding communication with PLC's from NI OPC server.
Let's imagine you have a production machine like a caping machine for a bottle production line, let's say the PLC on this machine is a Siemens S7300 which according to NI is compatible with NI OPC server.
The PLC would have already been programmed by the company who sells the machine to control it correctly.
The question is, if you'd like to add an interface, and all the capabilities that LabVIEW offers to this machine by controlling/monitoring its PLC, returning its alarms etc...
In that configuration is there a possibility that the LabVIEW application you would devellop affects the PLC's Behaviour and thus the machine functionality or yield and thus would have a negative impact?
Thanks a lot for your answers.
Best Regards,

Hi Olivioloyer Good Morning:
The issue here is that if you want to control, display and log data and funcionality from that PLC through LabVIEW you will have to change the program on the PLC to work correctly with your Interface and Alarming program that you will create in LabVIEW. If you develop a well designed architecture and an efficient code there will be no negative impact on yout PLC, on the contrary you will expand the funcionality and capability of your application.
Note: You will need to change your PLC program to achieve correct functionality with what your LabVIEW code will do.(Send and receive control commands). If you just want to monitor your PLCs behaviour, your code will be much more simple and maybe no change will be required on the PLCs program.
Juan Arguello
National Instruments México y Latinoamérica
Applications Engineer

How to open labview program with Quit Labview function inside?

Hi Any idea how to open labview program with Quit Labview function inside?
I forgot to add and set the condition of the type for this program.
If the program is an application, it would close straight away.
If it is still labview work, it will go straight to editing program without closing.
So I need to recover, open it and make some changes.
Clement
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Put the VI in a project and open it from there, then it shouldn't autorun. You can use App.kind property of application to decide whether to close or not.
/Y
LabVIEW 8.2 - 2014
"Only dead fish swim downstream" - "My life for Kudos!" - "Dumb people repeat old mistakes - smart ones create new ones."
G# - Free award winning reference based OOP for LV

I can not create an Installer, After install the Vision Builder Demo and then uninstall it. I can not create a Labview installer anymore, it asks me for a Vision Builder Installer, even if My Labview program does not have nothing to do with it...

I can not create an Installer on LabView, After install the Vision Builder Demo and then uninstall it. I can not create a Labview installer anymore, it asks me for a Vision Builder Installer, even if My Labview program does not have nothing to do with it...
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Shada this can happen if you are including additional installers to your installer for example DAQmx. When you are doing this the installer has to include other files like MAX (Measuremente and Automation Explorer). Probably when you installed Vision Builder it updated MAX, so when your installer is trying to Include MAX, its asking for the source where it was installed in your computer in this case Vision Builder.
Here you can cache the information so its not asked again, or you can download a newer version fo DAQmx, so it will update MAX and change de dependecy.
You can find more details about this issue in this KB:
KnowledgeBase 3S88PJMY: Why Do I Get A "Missing Distribution" Error When Trying to Build an Installe...
And for keeping a copy here is more info:
How Do I Stop the Missing Distribution Notification Each Time I Build An Installer?
Best Regards
Benjamin C
Senior Systems Engineer // CLA // CLED // CTD

LabView (8.2) hangs when using I/O operations with traditional NI-DAQ 7.4.4 after aborting LabView program

Hello!
We have the following problem:
LabView (8.2) hangs when using I/O operations with traditional NI-DAQ 7.4.4 after aborting LabView program
We freshly installed LabView 8.2 (2006) and NI-DAQ 7.4.4 on a PC running Windows XP (Service Pack 3). We built a larger vi that remotely controls a traditional NI-DAQ card (AT-AO-10) on a second PC via NI-VISA 5.0.3. We were successfully running this program until a power failure caused the first computer to crash. After this crash we were unable to start the program again: LabView freezes while loading the vi. LabView itself can be started but freezes when adding I/O operations from the NI-DAQ palette to a block diagram.
We have tried to re-install NI-DAQ 7.4.4, but it did not help. We then re-installed all NI software, but still no improvement. In the end we decided to reinstall ALL software, first Windows XP, then LabView and finally NI-DAQ 7.4.4. This worked. However, after a few days of running the program we had to abort LabView via Windows Task manager and afterward we again experienced the same problem as before: LabView freezes when loading the program.
Obviously, we cannot afford to reinstall Windows every time. Are there any known Windows XP / NI-DAQ issues that might cause the freezing of LabView? We would be very grateful for any idea.
Best regards,
Matthias

Hello Sprice,
Browse the shipping examples according to “Directory Structure” and then select
DAQ to find the Traditional DAQ examples.
There a lot of examples that are written for counters (Counter >>
daq-stc.llb >> Count Edges (DAQ-STC).vi).
What kind of signals are your photons creating? Are they TTL compatible at a certain
frequency? You don’t care about overwriting
your buffer?
Respectfully,
Rob F
Test Engineer
Condition Measurements
National Instruments

Case study: "Large?" labview programs flooded with different VIT's

Case study: "Large?" labview programs flooded
with different VIT's
Type of application:
Computer with loads of individual hardware connected or other software (either
onsite (different buses) or offsite (Satelite/GSM/GPRS/radio etc.).
Hardware
description: little data "RPM" but communications to all devices are intact.
More "RPM" when many VITs are involved.
Size: 1000+
VITS in memory (goal). Total software has been tested and simulated with 400.
I'm posting
this post after reading this thread (and actually I cant sleep and am bored as
hell).
Note: I do
not use LVOOP (but sure post OOP examples, am starting to learn more and more
by the day.)
Things I
will discuss are:
Case 1: Memory usage using a plugin
architecture
CASE 2: memory usage using VITs (!)
CASE 3: updating datastructures:
CASE 4: shutdown of the whole system
CASE 5: stability & heath monitoring
CASE 6: Inifiles
CASE 7: When the hardware is getting crappy
Total
application overview:
We have a
main application. This main application is mainly empty as hell, and only holds
a plugin functionality (to register and administer plugins) and holds an
architecture that holds the following items:
Queue state
machine for main application error handling
Queue state
machine for status messages
Queue state
machine for updating virtual variables
Event state
machine for GUI
Some other
stuff
Other
global functionality is:
User
logins, user configurations and unique access levels
Different
nice tools like the good old BootP and other juicy stuff
Supervision
of variables (like the NI tag engine, but here we have our own datastructures)
Generation
of virtual variables (so that the user can configure easy mathematical
functions and combining existing tags)
Licensing
of plugins (hell we free-lance programmers need some money to don't we?)
Handles
all communication between plugins themselves, or directly to a plugin or vice
versus.
And now we don't
talk about that (or marketing) the main application .
Message Edited by Corny on 01-20-2010 08:52 AM

CASE 3: updating datastructures:
As we do NOT use clusters here (that would
just be consuming) we only use an 1D array of data that needs to be updated in
different functional globals. If the the number of VITS exceeds so that the
updating of this datastructures becomes the bottleneck, this would cause
delays. And since in this example we use 250 serial interfaces (lol) we do not
want to disrupt that by any delays. When this happends, does anyone know a good
solution to transfer data?
A thought:
perhaps sending it down to the plugin and let the plugin handle it, this should
save some time, but then again if more VITs are added again this would become a
bottleneck and the queue would fill up after a while unable to process it fast
enough. Any opinions?
CASE 4: shutdown of the whole system
Lets say we
want to close it all down, but the VITs need perhaps to do some shutdown
procedure towards the hardware, that can be heavy.
If we ask
them to shutdown all together we can use an natofier or userevent to do this
job. Well, what happends next is that the CPU will jump to the roof, and well
that can only cause dataloss and trouble. The solution here was to let the
plugin shut them all down one by one, when one has been shutdown, begin at the
next. Pro; CPU will not jump to the moon. Con's: shutdown is going to take a
while. Be ready with a cup of coffee.
Also we
want the main application not to exit before we exit. The solution above solved
this as the plugin knows when all have been shut down, and can then shut itself
down. When all plugins are shutdown - the application ends.
Another
solution is to use rendovous (arg cant spell it) and only shut the system down
when all rendezvous have met.
CASE 5: stability & heath monitoring
This IS
using a lot of memory. How to get it down. And has anyone experienced any
difficulties with labview using A LOT of memory? I want to know if something
gets corrupt. The VITs send out error information in case, but what if
something weird happens, how can I surveillance all the VIT's in memory to know
one is malfunctioning in an effective way/code (as backup
solution so the application knows
something is wrong?
CASE 6: Inifiles
Well, we
all like them. Even if XML is perhaps more fahionally. Now Ive runned some
tests on large inifiles. And the labview Inifile functions use ages to parsing
all this information. Perhaps an own file structure in binary format or
something would be better? (and rather create an configuration program)?
CASE 7: When the hardware is getting crappy:
Now what if
the system is hitting the limit and gradually exceeds the hardware req. of the
software. What to do then (thinking mostly of memory usage)? Needing to install
it on more servers or something and splitting configurations? Is that the best
way to solve this? Any opinions?
Wow. Time for a coffee cup. Impressive if someone
actually read all of this. My goal is to reach the 1000 VIT mark.. someday.. so
any opinions, and just ask if something unclear or other stuff, Im open for all
stuff, since I see the software will hit a memory barrier someday if I want to
reach that 1000 mark hehe

Labview program to find the external hardwares connected with the PC

Hai All,
Do any one know how to find the external hardware details connected with our PC (like USB memory stick), using labview program.

That's assuming the user is running Windows.
If you are under Windows you can access this information from the Registry. For example, for USB you can look at the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USB.
Message Edited by smercurio_fc on 04-30-2008 10:39 AM

Formatting of a chart works on a vi in labview but not with the same program as a .exe

I am trying to make a labVIEW program into an exe using the application builder. I have managed to fix the other problems I encountered but there is one that I cant figure out. On the main screen of my program there is a chart with a drop down menu that displays different information. There is a subVI that I made to change the size and number of columns of the chart depending on the item chosen in the drop down menu. This seems to work fine in the program when run using labVIEW, but once I made it into a .exe file, the width and number of colums seems to have defaulted and will not change for each item chosen in the drop down menu as it did before. I am sure that I included the vi
that controls this, but i cant seem to get it to work with the program as an exe.

I cant find the runtime menu file. Maybe I explained my problem incorrectly. I am not using a runtime menu, I am using a menu ring. . .if there is any difference. I am attaching an example of what I suspect is causing the problem in my program. If you still think I need to include the runtime menu file, can you tell me where I can find it?
Attachments:
table_example.vi ‏52 KB
table_formatting.vi ‏117 KB

Interface labview program with real appliances

How do i interface labview program with real life appliances. For example: interface with light bulb

I suppose you could also find some kind of adapter to turn it into an IP based appliance and you could control it through the ethernet. Or you could wait a few decades and interface LabVIEW 2059 with your cranial implant to directly control your light bulb.
Bill
(Mid-Level minion.)
My support system ensures that I don't look totally incompetent.
Proud to say that I've progressed beyond knowing just enough to be dangerous. I now know enough to know that I have no clue about anything at all.

EE with PLC & LabVIEW Programming - Pittsburgh PA

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