How to use OOI LIBS 2500+ spectrometer with Labview

[MartinJ99]

I am hoping someone with more exerience with Labview might be able to assist me with a program I am currently trying to write. The ultimate goal is to build a working VI for a LIBS 2500+ spectrometer. I'm running across some trouble with the hardware-software communication. The program I currently am using (and the one provided by OOI) only recognizes one spectrometer in the 7-channel system. Once the program is running, I'm able to view and operate that particular spectrometer, however, all other channels are non-existent. I have tried several different methods and have determined the serial of the first channel is the only S/N detected by the software.

My question is this, "Is there a way to incorporate all 7 channels in one VI? If so, how would I go about creating such a VI?" If anyone has had experience using Labview with Ocean Optics hardware, in particular the HR 2000, HR 2000+, and/or LIBS 2500+ spectrometers, and have any information that might be helpful, please feel free to email me.

One other piece of information, the spectrometer has a USB, Ext. Q-Switch, Ext. Trig., and Lamp Sync ports. The latter 3 have connectors to BNC cables, however, the primary port is USB. There is no serial port on this unit as I have seen several info posts with HR2000's with serial ports. 

jamesm@creol.ucf.edu

[gharris]

Hi MartinJ99,

I'm working on a USB2000+ spectrometer application and am having good luck so far just using NI Visa to talk directly to the spectrometer instead of using the OO drivers.  I only have one spectrometer, so I don't know about dealing with multiple channels, but if you can get the manual from OO you should be able to get it working.

First you need to uninstall all drivers and inf files for the spectrometers and create your own driver.  Its suprisingly easy - look at http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4478 for instructions.

Then you need to try something simple.  The first thing I got working on the USB2000+ was to retrieve a spectrum.  Look at the get_spectrum.vi  It works just as quickly as the OO driver and I haven't had a crash yet.  I'm still learning how to work with USB, but something I recently learned is that there are multiple channels called "pipes" that are used.   Its really easy to handle, I learned recently on this forum.  Look at get_calibration.vi for that.

I hope this is helpful - If you have any documentation on the spectrometer, I could take a look for you.

[MartinJ99]

Hi gharris,

I tried to open your VI's, but my version of Labview is not compatible with yours (I'm using Labview 8.5). Could you please post the screenshots of the VIs? Thanks! I appreciate the help.

[gharris]

Hi Martin,

Sorry about that - I'm using 8.6.  Here's a copy saved as 8.5.  By the way, I looked at the OO website and saw that your spectrometer has 7 HR2000 spectrometers inside.  The command set is identical to the USB2000+, as far as I can see.  Maybe when you make a driver with the visa wizard you could try checking the compound device checkbox to get access to all the spectrometers.  Otherwise, maybe a call to OO would help clarify.

[MartinJ99]

Hi gharris,

I started playing around with VISA to see if I could build a driver for the spectrometer, and I also took note of the compound device checkbox. I would assume a working driver with VISA would recognize all 7 channels. 

Also, thanks for the code. I'll be looking that over this weekend. I'll let you know if I was able to get something working.

[gharris]

Sounds good - best of luck!

[pippo34]

hi gharris,

I have an USB2000+ spectrometer, and I'm also interested in using the VISA drivers rather than the Optics ones. However I'm using LabView 7.1 and I cannnot open the vis you posted before. If the same drivers can be used also in LabView 7, could you post a copy saved as 7.1?

Thank you

[A_Person]

The attached VIs are those originally posted by gharris saved for 7.1.

[gharris]

any feedback/suggestions would be appreciated.  Hopefully the visa vi's will be useful to a lot of people

[pippo34]

Thank you very much. I'll try the drivers as soon as possible and I'll let you know if they works for me as well.