Connecting to Hokuyo Ethernet LIDAR using TCP in LabVIEW

[SpaceyJo]

Hello,

I'm using a Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW LIDAR with an ethernet connection. I'm attempting to communicate with it using TCP. At this point, all I'm trying to do is make a connection and read raw data. I'm able to connect with the device using the software that came with it, but whenever I try to connect using LabVIEW, I'm unable to even establish a connection. I've tried everything from following online TCP tutorials to modifying examples from the example library to no avail. I'm using the default IP of 192.168.0.10 and the default port 10940 but it's just not connecting.

I've worked with UDP in LabVIEW before, but never TCP so I'm not sure if there's something special about TCP that I'm missing. 

Any help at all would be most appreciated. Thank you!

SpaceyJo

[User002]

Have you tried Hokyo's support pages?

http://www.hokuyo-aut.jp/02sensor/07scanner/download/products/utm-30lx-ew/

It is usually a good starting point to verify that your lidar is ready for connections using the vendor's configuration applications.

Br,

/Roger

[ianidas300]

Hey SpaceyJo,

There is a 3rd party driver linked with the Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW that can be found at ni.com/idnet. Searching for your device will lead you to this page

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=501C4A2F62792566E0440003BA7CCD...

This link will have you download NI-VISA 4.2 which is a software architecture that will allow you to set up a TCP/IP resource for your device. Follow the Hokuyo URG Series Instrument Driver Readme.html found in the download folder which will help you get set up for what you need.

 

[billko]

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@ianidas300 wrote:

Hey SpaceyJo,

There is a 3rd party driver linked with the Hokuyo UTM-30LX-EW that can be found at ni.com/idnet. Searching for your device will lead you to this page

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=501C4A2F62792566E0440003BA7CCD...

This link will have you download NI-VISA 4.2 which is a software architecture that will allow you to set up a TCP/IP resource for your device. Follow the Hokuyo URG Series Instrument Driver Readme.html found in the download folder which will help you get set up for what you need.

 

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Can you recommend a version of NI-VISA without knowing which version of LabVIEW the user is using?

[ianidas300]

We always recommend using the latest driver that is specified to be compatible with the version of LabVIEW that you are using. The compatibility chart can be found here:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/E7C93038169B6E7686257847004B8B9C?OpenDocument

The driver support page for the Hokuyo sensor says to use NI-VISA 4.2 but I would suggest using the table from the link above to choose the proper NI-VISA version for you LabVIEW software version.

Once again, Bill, thank you for pointing this out. At National Instruments we are always looking for feedback to fix documentation. We will move forward to correct this accordingly.

[SpaceyJo]

Thank you. I'd already tried using this software and couldn't get it to work. There were a couple of things I was doing wrong with it, but I think now I've got it all sorted out. For whatever reason, my resource for the Hokuyo was deleted. I uninstalled and reinstalled NI-VISA and created a new resource so now it seems to work just fine.

[iokkkk]

Hello,

I have a Laser scanner Hokuyo Ethernet LIDAR, and I could follow the directions to use it.

But I need to save the output in a file.asci or. Xyz or wrl.
you can do it?

thanks

[Eric-J]

This should give you a good idea of the file I/O functions available in LabVIEW and the types of files you can work with:

File I/O VIs and Functions

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361K-01/glang/file_vis_and_functions/