What would I need to use if I wanted to enter a bunch of data and then push multiple serial writes to VISA in succession

[meisterhopper]

I am building an automatic liquid handler and I would like to create a vi that can take in a series of commands and write them in succession in Visa.

Eg 

Aspirate from port 1, Inject to port 2

Aspirate from port 3, Inject to port 2, etc

In serial form, it would break down to

Set Valve 1, Aspirate 30 ul, Set valve to 2, Inject 30, set valve to 3, etc

I was thinking of having an array to have the user input the parameters but arrays just take in numbers. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

I don't understand your comment. You can have an array of numerics, strings, clusters, etc. The only restriction is that all elements have to be the same data type.

[meisterhopper]

Hi Dennis,

Sorry for the confusion.  The end instrument that I have requires specific commands eg I20 for aspirate 20 ul, so it cannot be a single data type. 

[johnsold]

You need to separate the User Interface (UI) requirements from the Instrument Command requirements. Set up the front panel in a manner which will allow the user to conveniently enter the high level commands in a manner familiar to the user. Then write some code, probably in a subVI, which interprets the high level command and creates the necessary array of strings to write to the intstrument.

If the UI only includes Aspirate and Inject commands and port selections plus timing, you might have a cluster or even separate controls for those parameters. After the user has set the values, he presses an "Enter" button which puts the values into an array of clusters. After entering all the series of commands, he presses an "Execute" button which calls the parsing Vi and then passes the resulting string array to the VISA Write loop.

Lynn