Instead of using a "Simple State Machine" and implementing the Event Structure as a "State" that needs to be repeatedly Entered and auto-exited using a Timeout case, you could take advantage of LabVIEW's Parallel architecture and create two loops, a While Loop containing only the Event Structure and a State Machine fed by a Queue instead of a Shift Register. The Event Loop requests a State to be run by putting that State on the Queue, and the State Machine requests a "Next State" by doing the same thing, putting the State on the same Queue.
There is a Template (called the Producer/Consumer Design Pattern (Events)) that ships with LabVIEW. Open LabVIEW, click "New ..." (the dots are important!) in the File Menu, and find this Template. It will build a prototype that you can study and either modify yourself or, once you understand how it works, simply code it up. Just remember that the key concept is that the Event Loop and the State Machine run in their own independent While Loops, so they run simultaneously and the trick is to get these parallel loops to interact. The "usual way" to do this until LabVIEW 2016 was through Queues -- in LabVIEW 2016, the alternative of using "Channel Wires" is available (and is my method of choice).
Bob Schor
