What should I use to connect to various devices?

[Questions]

A system is already in place and I would like to implement LabVIEW to monitor readings from various pressure controllers, power sources, flow controllers, etc... Each has its own computer interface ports and I was wondering what would be the best way to connect all these to labVIEW. I may also wish to automate the system in the future by turning the various devices on and off. Is there any hardware necessary for all these connections? I am just getting started using LabVIEW and any help is greatly appreciated.

[Dennis_Knutson]

There may be hardware necessary but since you don't specify the type of computer interface ports the instruments have, all I can do is give you some general comments. A common instrument bus is called GPIB. The instruments connect using special cables to a GPIB controller in the PC. Some instruments have a serial port connection (RS-232). Each instrument would need a dedicated serial port on the PC and connected with a fairly inexpensive cable. Expansion is possible with dedicated RS-232 cards or with USB to RS-232 converters. Some instruments have a USB connection. You would need a cable to connect those to the PC and maybe a USB expansion device depending on the number of instruments. Lastly, some instruments have an ethernet connection. The only ha
rdware required would be a PC with a NIC card and possibly a network hub or switch. LabVIEW is capable of communicating over all of these types of connections.