DAQ with CAEN VME TDC

[wiggy13]

Hello, I'm using the caen VME TDC V1290N and i would like to know how to read data using labview.

I got an externatl trigger connected to the trigger and and one input to input 1 from PMT/scill.

thanks.

ps. I'm new to this

[TobyHex]

Hello Wiggy13,
Do you mind giving me a bit more of a description of your system and how you are planning to communicate into LabVIEW? Specifically, the architecture of your hardware, are you communicating through a MXI connection, and what version of LabVIEW you are using. Thanks a lot and have a great afternoon!
Regards,

Nicholas K

[wiggy13]

I'm using CAEN VME QDC V792N and TDC 1290N. The controller is V2718 and is connected to a window XP machines using the Optical link(duplex multimode 62.5/125)
I'm using labview 8.2

For QDC
I have a pmt sensor with preamps with light supplied by the a LED. The LED pulse is supplied by a pulse generator.
signals from the pulse is connected to one of the inputs and QDC gate is inputed from the pulse generator.

For TDC,
the setup is similar to QDC where i have TDC gate is pulse generator and signals is from sensor

I'm  not  familair with TDC. all i know is that is acts as a stop watch. taking time between two events

thanks alot.

[Kevin_S]

Hi wiggy13,

LabVIEW is capable of communicating with a large number of hardware devices built by different companies. 

At a glance, I'm not able to see how your two devices communicate.  Do they plug into a PXI chassis?  Do you have a specific chassis for them?  Can you use GPIB, RS-232, or USB to communicate?  You mentioned an optical link.  Do you have a PCI card that reads this optical signal?  (Perhaps there is a driver that can allow LabVIEW to access this input card.)

There is an instrument driver network located here, but I do not see any instrument drivers that work with the two devices you have mentioned.  As far as I can tell, there are no instrument drivers for the company CAEN at all.

Kevin S.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[wiggy13]

Hello,
           I do have a PCI card for the computer. The PCI card is connected to the VME controller V2718 via the optical link

(http://www.caen.it/nuclear/product.php?mod=V2718)

The VME controller also came with a CAENVMEDEMO program that allows me to read /write registers.

it came also with caen libs

I do have a sample code to initiliase the VME. and test the QDC(through there are some bugs).

[Kevin_S]

Hi wiggy13,

If there are DLLs available for your controller for 3rd party programs to access, you can program LabVIEW to call into those libraries.  There are a few items to note.  First, it's possible to access your controller, and you can even import the DLLs easily if each one has a header file.  (Use the Import Shared Library Wizard found at Tools » Import » Shared Library.)  Second, in order to get this to work successfully, you need some sort of documentation to instruct you as to how to communicate with your device.  Just note that this method would be very involved.

What would be well worth your time would be to do an in-depth search to see if someone else has already written a LabVIEW instrument driver for your specific device.

I hope this helps,

Kevin S.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[csalwen]

I'm using a V792 QDC and a V775 TDC.  When I contacted Caen directly they were able to give me example programs for these modules

[wiggy13]

Thanks for the info.
   ps. something stupid. how do you set the clock?

[Kevin_S]

Set the clock.....on your computer, on an embedded controller, or in your program?

Kevin S.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[wiggy13]

Hi csalwen,
                        are you using labview 6 or 8 ? how do you solve the problem of replacing VXIout.vi with CAENVME.lib ?