Labview, ActiveX, and ThorLabs Piezo controller

[tony.olivieri]

Grettings,

We recently purchased some 6-axis piezo positioners, and 3-channel APT controllers from ThorLabs. The main goal of this was to created a Labview program that can automate the positoners and have them move in sync with other measurement hardware. All the software I can seem to find for the controllers is this ActiveX stuff. Is there a normal Labview driver for these Piezo controllers? Or does anyone have a good example code of Labview controlling the movements of the piezo positioners without this ActiveX GUI interface. I basically need to automate an optical alignment very accurately and quickly(with the piezo) based on measurements from other devices, such as lasers and power supply's power meters, mulit-meters, ect.

Any help/tips/suggestions will be most appreciated.

Thank you.

[VedranJ]

2 minutes apart, and we are asking very similar questions.. mine too is about activeX and the thorlabs piezo controller, haha, good luck, I am very new to labview myself

[Ricky_V.]

Hey All,

You can check out our Instrument Driver site: www.ni.com/idnet and then choose ThorLabs. We have 12 drivers for their devices, which could be for the devices you are talking about.

Please let me know if you find the correct driver.

Thanks,

<Ricky Van De Graaf | Applications Engineering | National Instruments> 

[Richard2950]

I used the ActiveX controls for some of their T-Cube devices a coupe of years ago. At first  I thought it was great because you could use simulated devices to develop your programs without having all the hardware connected. Then I found that their USB drivers were incompatible with those of some of our other instruments and would cause LabVIEW crashes that could only be cured by a reboot. Then the positioning motors all began to fail so we abandoned them and went to a different vendor. I still have the T-cubes and may eventually use them again if I am in a pinch. As far as I know there are no other drivers, but perhaps they have updated them since I used them. I hope so.....

Richard

[SNB]

Hi Everyone,

                  I am really very new to Labview and i am in great need for some help.I am assigned a task where i am supposed to create a labview program to control or moniter a BPC203 3 channel benchtop  Piezo controller. I created a program with the help of the instructions provided in the APT-Labview guide provided by Thorlabs.But th program doesnt run . Whenever i try to run it i get the same error which says that "Control HW Communications disabled".I have attached a snapshot of the error message.So i tried to create a small program in labview which would read the volage output.Even there i got the same error message.I suppose there is some mistake on my part which i am not able to correct due to the lack of proper knowledge.Could anyone please help me to solve this problem.A slight elaboration would be highly appreciated.Also i think the error lies in the use of invoke node with the get Voltage output method. I am not sure whether the parameters i have provided to the invoke node are correct.Any help of any sort would be highly appreciated.

[SNB]

Hi Everyone,

                  I am really very new to Labview and i am in great need for some help.I am assigned a task where i am supposed to create a labview program to control or moniter a BPC203 3 channel benchtop  Piezo controller. I created a program with the help of the instructions provided in the APT-Labview guide provided by Thorlabs.But th program doesnt run . Whenever i try to run it i get the same error which says that "Control HW Communications disabled".I have attached a snapshot of the error message.So i tried to create a small program in labview which would read the volage output.Even there i got the same error message.I suppose there is some mistake on my part which i am not able to correct due to the lack of proper knowledge.Could anyone please help me to solve this problem.A slight elaboration would be highly appreciated.Also i think the error lies in the use of invoke node with the get Voltage output method. I am not sure whether the parameters i have provided to the invoke node are correct.Any help of any sort would be highly appreciated.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

---

@SNB wrote:

Hi Everyone,

                  I am really very new to Labview and i am in great need for some help.I am assigned a task where i am supposed to create a labview program to control or moniter a BPC203 3 channel benchtop  Piezo controller. I created a program with the help of the instructions provided in the APT-Labview guide provided by Thorlabs.But th program doesnt run . Whenever i try to run it i get the same error which says that "Control HW Communications disabled".I have attached a snapshot of the error message.So i tried to create a small program in labview which would read the volage output.Even there i got the same error message.I suppose there is some mistake on my part which i am not able to correct due to the lack of proper knowledge.Could anyone please help me to solve this problem.A slight elaboration would be highly appreciated.Also i think the error lies in the use of invoke node with the get Voltage output method. I am not sure whether the parameters i have provided to the invoke node are correct.Any help of any sort would be highly appreciated.

---

Start your own thread.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

Hi Everyone,

                  I am really very new to Labview and i am in great need for some help.I am assigned a task where i am supposed to create a labview program to control or moniter a BPC203 3 channel benchtop  Piezo controller. I created a program with the help of the instructions provided in the APT-Labview guide provided by Thorlabs.But th program doesnt run . Whenever i try to run it i get the same error which says that "Control HW Communications disabled".I have attached a snapshot of the error message.So i tried to create a small program in labview which would read the volage output.Even there i got the same error message.I suppose there is some mistake on my part which i am not able to correct due to the lack of proper knowledge.Could anyone please help me to solve this problem.A slight elaboration would be highly appreciated.Also i think the error lies in the use of invoke node with the get Voltage output method. I am not sure whether the parameters i have provided to the invoke node are correct.Any help of any sort would be highly appreciated.

[danishasefi]

hi all 

I also face same problem , due to being very new to labview i do not undertand very well , i have to drive a piezo scanner with PZD350 High voltage amplifier and i have crio9076 to controll and drive piezo scanner , can any body share some example codes with me . thanks 

[Esteban.R]

Hi danishasefi

I might recommend you to create a new post and if it is possible to be more specific regarding the problem that you are having or a more specific question. As this tread was created in 2011 and probably they were not using a cRIO. National Instruments tries to handle on issue per forum in order to keep the forums organized and so that future user can find answers more quickly.

Also it will be better if you could include links and datasheets on your future posts.

Regards

Esteban R.

[danishasefi]

Hi Esteban R,

Kindly send me the link of forum ,,,,which would be suitable for my questions .... 

[Eric-E]

I believe Esteban was suggesting that you create a new discussion that directly referenced the cRIO. cRIO questions typically are found at: http://forums.ni.com/t5/Real-Time-Measurement-and/bd-p/280.

I hope this helps,

Eric-E