topic Re: Develop Lookout Driver in Lookout

Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 04:17:57 GMT

Hi:

I am new to LabView and Lookout. I am intend to write a lookout driver for a SCADA system so that web-enabled UI from labview can be used. Could you provide some help?

Regards

Alpha7D

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Khalid — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:18:38 GMT

Hi,

Can you please provide more details of what exactly you're trying to accomplish? Are you using LabVIEW as the main development platform and using Lookout Protocol Drivers to talk to a certain PLC/device? Or, are you using the full development version of Lookout?

-Khalid

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:46:04 GMT

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:51:44 GMT

Hi Khalid:

I need several PCs running LabView (CVI?, Lookout?) to display real-time information from power SCADA system. The power SCADA system will provide real-time information update to LabView. I am looking for solution to interface the two. The possible solution, I guess, is to use CVI or Lookout. I am not considering OPC. So, my solution is to make a driver for the power SCADA system so that CVI or Lookout can interface with it.

For performance and data maintenance, I need more information on CVI or Lookout so that a better approach can be realized.

Thanks

Alpha7D

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Bassett_Hound — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 19:28:57 GMT

Alpha7D,

If your not looking to use OPC you may want to use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) or maybe ActiveX to transfer data if your power SCADA supports this. LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Lookout support DDE and ActiveX. More information about DDE and ActiveX in LabVIEW and about CVI, Lookout, and LabVIEW Software Packages can be found at the links below. I have also attached the links to the Evaluation Downloads for these products.

Lookout Developer's Manual
https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/371382a/resource/371382a.pdf

Using DDE in LabVIEW
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z0000019LMUSA2&l=en-US

ActiveX and LabVIEW
https://www.ni.com/en/shop/labview/activex-and-labview.html

Lookout Evaluation
http://digital.ni.com/demo.nsf/websearch/94E27DB64910F82E86256AB90070C6B7?OpenDocument&node=157200_US

LabWindows/CVI Evaluation
https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/software-products/download.labwindows-cvi.html

LabVIEW Evaluation
https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/software-products/download.labview.html

I am still confused as to if you are wanting to use CVI/LabWindows or Lookout to communicate with both the SCADA and LabVIEW environment or if you are trying to determine which Software would be the best to communicate with your SCADA program. Thanks.

Steven

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Khalid — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 23:24:58 GMT

Alpha7D,

Thanks for the added info'. However, it's still not clear what your main development platform will be. Lookout, by itself, can be a complete system and can talk to your devices, and also provide the info' online via its Web Client. You do not need any other software. Would this work?

Or, do you _have_to_ use LabVIEW as your platform? If yes, what communication protocol do your devices talk? (My guess would be DNP, if it's a Power monitoring system).

Also, I would personally avoid DDE if I could -- it's not very reliable and is a legacy technology.

Regards,

-Khalid

Message Edited by Khalid on 02-20-2006 05:26 PM

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:51:07 GMT

Hi Khalid and sbassett:

Thank for the reply. Khalid is right, we can talk to DNP3 or DNP3i. What is the way to go from here. I saw a lot of product information from NI and many things can be done. I think Lookout or Labview DSC will do the job (?). I am not sure if to use NI-VISA, DataSocket, or some other things. Please advice.

Regards

Alpha7D

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 02:57:11 GMT

Hi:

Additional information: LabView is on Windows platform, SCADA system is on Unix platform.

The interface between the two includes DI, AI, DO, AO and file transfer.

Regards

Alpha7D

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Khalid — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:39:08 GMT

Lookout supports DNP protocol. What do you mean by "SCADA on Unix?" I thought we were trying to design the SCADA with either Lookout or LabVIEW? Do you want this to run on Unix? Then, LabVIEW would be the choice as Lokout doesn't run on Unix.

-Khalid

Message Edited by Khalid on 02-22-2006 12:40 AM

Message Edited by Khalid on 02-22-2006 12:42 AM

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Bassett_Hound — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 23:10:51 GMT

Alpha 7D,

It sounds like your SCADA is already designed and communicating with your PLCs and other hardware. If this is correct it sounds like you just want to send the data collected from your UNIX system over to a Windows Machine and Display it. If your SCADA is able to send TCP/IP you would be able to use LabVIEW on a Windows Machine to read the data sent by your UNIX SCADA program.

Steven

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Alpha7D — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 23:52:56 GMT

Hi sbassett:

Yes, the SCADA is already developed. Just want to use LabView for some of it nice interface for certain data. What is the right way to implement the interface between Lookout and our SCADA. I read many documents on Labview, CVI, Lookout, it seems to me that it is not straight forward. I need to bind VIs to external data.

In other words, how can a 3rd party people develop another protocol driver (such as DNP3.0) for Labview or Lookout?

Alpha7D

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Bassett_Hound — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 19:29:32 GMT

National Instruments does provide an Object Developer Toolkit for Lookout with which you can create your own CBXs files.

However, since your SCADA system is already communicating with your hardware you should only need to send the data over TCP/IP to your windows Machine where LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Lookout would be able to read this data and display it

Steven

Re: Develop Lookout Driver

Khalid — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:19:55 GMT

@sbassett wrote:

However, since your SCADA system is already communicating with your hardware you should only need to send the data over TCP/IP to your windows Machine where LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Lookout would be able to read this data and display it

Steven

Right, and in which case you would need just LabVIEW, and not Lookout.

-Khalid