topic Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls in LabVIEW

Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:15:10 GMT

Hi guys so I have a VI where I have 4 different tabs in a tab control where each one of them is monitoring a different machine's temperature. I would like to know if there is any way to automatically have labview cycle through the tabs at maybe 30 second intervals while the VI is running. I have the temperature monitors hooked up to some boolean indicators to let me know when one machine is too hot or too cold, so it would be nice to be able to have labview automatically switch to that tab when any of the boolean indicators go off as well. I'm very new to labview so maybe this is a very simple fix that I just don't know about. Thanks in advance for any help!

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

PaulG. — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:21:05 GMT

You can select which tab page is visible the same way you can change the value of a control or indicator. You can use a property node or a local variable.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jcarmody — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:21:13 GMT

You'll probably want to do something different than the 2000mS wait, but this gives you the idea.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

RTSLVU — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:22:55 GMT

Try something like this

Make your Tab Control an Indicator.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 18:40:58 GMT

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 21:01:27 GMT

Sorry, not sure why my last post wasn't visible? Thanks for all the suggestions, but I'm not really sure how they could be implemented into my code? Here is my front panel and my block diagram.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jcarmody — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 21:44:51 GMT

Just put what I or RTSLVU offered somewhere on your Block Diagram (outside of your main loop). It'll cycle the pages (without regard for the changes in the Boolean indicators).

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

apok — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:28:20 GMT

hmmm...i would not connect any software timing to the wait ms function, that would freeze the FP controls from doing anything. use the elapsed time function to free up your while loop

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jcarmody — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:30:37 GMT

Right. That's what I meant by this:

@jcarmody wrote:

You'll probably want to do something different than the 2000mS wait, but this gives you the idea.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

apok — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 22:45:50 GMT

@jcarmody wrote:

Right. That's what I meant by this:

@jcarmody wrote:

You'll probably want to do something different than the 2000mS wait, but this gives you the idea.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

altenbach — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 23:05:54 GMT

You also want to place the "Pages" property node and "array size" before the loop. Executing it once is enough!

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 16:44:16 GMT

I used the tab.vi that was given and I'm getting an error. It says "The case structure must have a Boolean, numeric or enumerated input wired to its selector terminal (the '?'). I wasn't getting this error until I tried out the new block of code suggested by apok. Also, altenbach, what do you mean by "before the loop"? Should that entire line be placed outside of the while loop? If so, how should it be wired back into the Quotient & Remainder? Thanks again, guys.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

apok — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:25:07 GMT

the image was to be used as a suggested example that needs to be modified for your use...

suggest that you not use case structures as the code will only update every multiple of 30 seconds. continously monitor your bools and plug them into the "select" functions when you've reached your limits. now this is a suggestion and not a solution, as we cannot see the rest of the code in the other cases and therefore assume (makes me look like an @ss, because I cannot read minds yet?). also, the input constants need to be change to what page you want to show or again to your specific needs here....

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jcarmody — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:17:51 GMT

I'd expect to see "Torus 1" in red. Did you copy that structure from somewhere where it was selecting on an Enum? It also looks like the blue wire is going into a tunnel behind the selector terminal. That's probably your problem.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:32:57 GMT

Yes, I just copied and pasted the entire case structure from my first block diagram before adding in the while loop. Sorry if I'm not very good with LabVIEW. This is for an internship that I'm working at right now and I'm having to do this on LabVIEW with zero previous experience. I've learned everything I could in the last two weeks or so, but I really appreciate all of your help. As far as not being able to see my other cases, they're all identical except they deal with different Torus machines. This will not be my final code because in my final code the numeric controls labeled "mid temp" and "exit temp" will actually be read from a thermocouple. I am just creating this for now to try to find a way to have the four different Torus machines temperatures be continuously graphed and have an alarm go off any time that any of the four machines gets too hot or too cold. I also want the front panel to cycle through the four graphs periodically. I'm not 100% sure if using a case structure with tab controls is the best way to do this, but it's the only way that made sense to me at first.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jcarmody — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 17:57:34 GMT

Was your original program working as you wanted it to, except you simply wanted the tabs to cycle? If so, juat make the tab.vi a parallel loop and leave the original program untouched.

Could you post your original VI, rather than images? We'll be better able to see where you're going and how we can help.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

apok — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:40:26 GMT

@jmejiagusmer wrote:

Hi guys so I have a VI where I have 4 different tabs in a tab control where each one of them is monitoring a different machine's temperature. I would like to know if there is any way to automatically have labview cycle through the tabs at maybe 30 second intervals while the VI is running. I have the temperature monitors hooked up to some boolean indicators to let me know when one machine is too hot or too cold, so it would be nice to be able to have labview automatically switch to that tab when any of the boolean indicators go off as well. I'm very new to labview so maybe this is a very simple fix that I just don't know about. Thanks in advance for any help!

hopefully.........gl!

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

apok — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:50:24 GMT

oooops....the "greater than zero" must be change to "greater than equal zero"

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

crossrulz — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:53:57 GMT

@apok wrote:

oooops....the "greater than zero" must be change to "greater than equal zero"

You could avoid that all together by using the Compound Arithmetic Node set to OR instead of the Build Array. Then you don't have to do the search either.

Re: Periodically cycle through tab controls

jmejiagusmer — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:06:14 GMT

Well, it was working in the sense that I could select the different tabs and it would record the data points onto the graph every 30 seconds. My booleans were lighting up as expected, as well. However, I realized that when I was on tab 1, the tab 2 data points would not record on the graph and vice versa. Ididn't have the tabs cycling, either. Here is my original VI.