Problems with Thorlabs controller BSC103

[Daniel_Thomas_NIUK]

Hi Andres,

I’ve had a further look into this error code 3006. This doesn’t seem to be a LabVIEW related error. From information that I have found I believe this to be an error that the Thorlabs motor drivers are throwing up. It’s a case of LabVIEW seeing this error and simply just displaying it. If you have access to a list of error codes for the Thorlabs motor drivers, I would be interested to find out if this error is on the list.

You might want to try following the instructions on the error by going to File >> VI Properties, and then going to the Execution tab, and under the Preferred Execution System select user interface. The execution system setting changes the thread timing and thread priorities for LabVIEW, and the Thormotor drivers may require the user interface configuration. Tell me if this helps.

Otherwise, we will probably need to contact Thorlabs about this issue.


Regards

Message Edited by DThomas on 10-07-2008 12:29 PM

Message Edited by DThomas on 10-07-2008 12:30 PM

[MarkRobson@Thorlabs]

Error 3006 is neither an error from the Thorlabs controllers or from national instruments LabView. This error is related to Active-X communications between the two. 

In order for LabView to communicate with Active-X controls it seems to tend to want to create strange and unusual interfaces behind the scenes. This being different to most other development environments. The reason for this is to do with the way LabView employs multi threading I am lead to believe. APT User doesn't require such iterfaces nor do most other programs.

By switching the LabView VI to use the "User Interface" execution thread (an option on the VI preferences) communication via Active-X will operate normally.

A workaround as been created which avoids the need for this change in execution system. This workaround has been incorporated into v2.7.0 which will be released in the next 7 days.

[espectometriajaveriana]

we are advancing in the develop working with LabVIEW 8.5 and thorlabs equipment, but we have a couple of questions.

The first is: why we cannot disable the operation of the interface of the APT software in our application, if we choose the option desing mode in the contextual menu of the ActiveX container.

and the second is: If we are working with an event, this is HomeComplete, how we can pause the excecution of the main VI from the subVi, until the event happen.

Thank you for your replay

[tony.olivieri]

Hi guys, I am have been using a BPC203 controller with a 6 axis peizo stage for some time now. All the work I do with these are fully automated via Labview. One thing that I must do in order to get labview working with the controller is to issue a "ZeroPosition" Method first. This is of course done using the Active X stuff. So I start with the Properties "HWSerialNum" block, then Method "StartCtrl" then the Method "ZeroPosition". This gets done for each card or axis (serial number) in the controller, this is probably the long hard way but it works. Anyway, I do those three blocks stated above 3 times in a row, just changing the serial number for each axis. So I have a total of 9 blocks all in series, which zero each axis one at a time. This was the only way I was able to get labview to communicate properly with the controller. Zeroing the controller with the front panel on the actual controller or front panel on the GUI software did not work for me. Only zeroing with Labview/Active X code works for mine, Once a zeroing in labview is done, I can then open any programs I have that use the peizo controller and run them without problems. 

Hope this helps.

[John.S]

I am also having problems communicating with the ThorLabs BPC203 controller. My simple LabVIEW code fails at the start. It fails to change the serial number with the "HWSerialNum" block. All else fails after this. The "APT User" program from Thorlabs does work on the same machine. I'm using the latest APT Software (CDM621 APT Software V2.14.0) and LabVIEW 2011 (32 bit code) on a Windows 7 (64 bit) machine. I also tried same code on older Windows XP machine (32 bit) and received same error.

Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

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@John.S wrote:

I am also having problems communicating with the ThorLabs BPC203 controller. My simple LabVIEW code fails at the start. It fails to change the serial number with the "HWSerialNum" block. All else fails after this. The "APT User" program from Thorlabs does work on the same machine. I'm using the latest APT Software (CDM621 APT Software V2.14.0) and LabVIEW 2011 (32 bit code) on a Windows 7 (64 bit) machine. I also tried same code on older Windows XP machine (32 bit) and received same error.

Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks in advance.

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Your VI would be useful.

[John.S]

Thanks for reply. Attached is a pdf with an image of the Block Diagram, Front Panel, and Event Handler with error message received. Also attached is the vi itself. Thanks for any help on this.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

With ActiveX communication in LabVIEW, I usually expect to see an Automation Open function. I don't see that in your VI. Isn't it required for this equipment?

[John.S]

My code is based on the LabVIEW tutorial that Thorlabs provides with their ActiveX-based controllers (this can be found at: http://www.thorlabs.com/images/TabImages/GuideToLabVIEWandAPT.pdf). My vi is close to that of one found on page 28 of this tutorial. I removed the while loop to keep my example simple. The Automation Open function is not present.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

You might want to include it and see what happens.