How to connect with Yokogawa UT 150 Furnace Controller using NI cDAQ and Labview

[UmichSteve]

Hello all,

I am facing difficulties in hooking up a new furnace with my data acquisition system. The furnace I use has a Yokogawa UT 150 temperature controller built in and I want to use Labview to read off and control the furnace temperature. The furnace has come with a serial RS 485 port connector. I have the hardware converter (RS 485 to USB) and hooked that up to my PC. Unfortunately there is no driver available for Labview neither from Yokogawa nor from NI. I am dependent on getting this setup work to procede.

1) Is there any suggestions as to how to approach it? (I am looking for a rather pragmatic and easy approach since I am a DAQ & Labview novice)

2) Is it worthwhile getting some other serial driver and manipulating (adopting ) it?

3) How about using a OPC application such as kepserverX?

4) Has anyone experience in transferring some drivers from Spec View to Labview? (I know that for Spec View they have a working driver/ software for this controller)

Any help is most appreciated and thus welcome.

Steve

[Ben]

I wrote a driver for those some years back.

The main word of caution is that the temperature profile is defined in units of seconds while writing it to the controller but when queried it reports back in what ever the user specified time units are.

I can't give away the driver but the application is available "as -is" if you are interested.

Ben

[EdDickens]

You should be able to get the command set from Yokogawa that is needed to interface with the controller. Usually they will provide a programming reference manual that will detail all the commands and how the messages need to be formatted.

After you get that, give the Instrument IO Assistant Express VI a try. This will make it fairly easy to develop a set of instrument drivers with an interactive interface and auto-parsing tools for data parsing.

This Express VI can then be converted to LabVIEW code.

Ed

[UmichSteve]

Ben,

Well, I think, I know waht you want to point out with being cautious. Indeed one would have to pay attention to that.

What do you mean by saying that you cannot give away the driver, but you can provide the application as-is? Would that help me to have the as-is application? In case it does, I would appreciate having a look at it. I hope you can make that feasible.

Thanks for your comment. It's good to know that at least there is a driver or application for that one.

Thanks.

Steve

[Ben]

In reply #22 of this thread I posted the design of the application as "Application_Design_Rev_a2.doc".

My boss has sold the LV source code for that application for a fixed price "as-is" (i.e. no support, no questions, you are on your own) in the past for a very reasonable price (at least that what the last customer said).

As Ed mentioned it is possible to write the interface yourself and this forum can help you over any hurdles.

I already gave you the biggest secret. The rest is academic.

So try it yourself and if you run into problems  and  want to "cheat" rember where to come. 

Just trying to help,

Ben