Lecroy 9354 Oscilloscope Newbie questions

[vroomy]

Hi,

I am running Labview 7 and am tryin gto interface with a LeCroy 9354M Oscilloscope via GPIB. I am very new to Labview (it's been a couple of hours, honestly) so I apologize in advance for my denseness.

I have installed the 93XX drivers from the Lecroy website, and can control the oscilloscope from Labview using the two vi's "getting started.vi" and "application example.vi". I would like to know the following:

1. How do I get the graph display on "application example.vi" to save to a spreadsheet/delimited txt file? I can see the graph on screen in Auto mode, but it is not continuous. I would like a continuous waveform to displayed on screen and be dumped into a txt file until it is told to stop -- is that possible, and how do I manage that.

2. I tried looking at the VI tree, and tried to get LCDSO Read Wave 1 (Single) 'Wave output' node (that currently goes into "wave graph") to connect to a cluster 'unbundle by name' and tried to send that to a 'write to spreadsheet' module, but was getting data-type errors (scalar-to-array etc.)...what is the best way to uncluster this data and format it to a spreadsheet.

3. Can anyone recommend guides to Labview designed for newbies? I'm sure I will find some on the net as I look around, but I am wondering if anyone knows any guide that has been particularly helpful to them.

Thank you very much for your help,
Joe

[vroomy]

bump!.
please helpl

[Dennis_Knutson]

Why don't you attach the VI you are trying to get to save the data with? Since it's a download from LeCroy instead of NI, that would make it simpler for someone to see exactly what the cluster is and how it coulde be written. The whole driver would be even better.

For learning, you might want to start at http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/5054.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 10-29-2006 04:35 PM

[MattP]

Hi Joe,

Dennis is spot-on, as usual - we'd need to see the code that's giving you the trouble before we can recommend any specific course of action.  Just from intuition, however, I can tell you the following:

1.  The data display is likely a graph (which takes a static array of data and displays the array), what you're looking for is a chart (which can update the display point-by-point in a scrolling fashion).  To log the data, you can use the Write to Spreadsheet File VI, for which we have an example program that ships with LabVIEW.  You do not need to have the continuous chart type in order to log all of the data correctly, and in fact the graph is more efficient in terms of memory usage.

2.  You're likely wiring a 'Waveform' data type to the write to spreadsheet VI, which can only accept an array input.  To solve, we also have a VI called Export Waveform to Spreadsheet File.VI which can accept a waveform input directly.

3.  Ditto Dennis.  That's your best starting point for introductory LabVIEW information.

[alanjb]

Hi vroomy,

Alan in LeCroy Tech Support here...

1. Note that oscilloscopes acquire data in bursts;  there is always deadtime between sweeps no matter whether you are in Auto or Normal trigger mode. True continuous data recording is not something the oscilloscope can do. You can, of course continually acquire waveforms, and dump them to file. 

2.  Take a look at the attached screenshot. The Wave Output bundle includes a 1D array; this should be wired to the 1D array input of Write to Spreadsheet File. Consider using the Write LabVIEW Measurement file instead of Write to Spreadsheet File - it's much more powerful.  (Also in the attached screenshot)

3. I recommend taking a formal LabVIEW training course as the best way to learn LabVIEW.  Go here... http://www.ni.com/training/

Feel free to email or call me for further discussion.

Best Regards,

Alan

[vroomy]

Hi All,

Thank you so much for the responses. It will take me a little time to look through the responses and digest the information that you have provided. In the meanwhile, I am attaching a zip file that contains the drivers required. I am not sure about the .llb file dependencies, so I am attaching the whole thing.

The .vi file that I am looking at is called "LC 935x_7x_8x Application Example.vi" and is contained in "lc93xx.llb" located in the directory "/lc93xx". I am working with the information that you have provided me, but just for clarity, I will state my query again:

1. I would like to construct a system that continuously polls the oscilloscope for data and stores as text or spreadsheet. It doesn't matter if there is dead-time between recordings, as long as it is predictable.

Right now I see on running the .vi, graphs that correspond to the screen of the oscilloscope. I would like this represented as a txt or spreadsheet.

Thanks again, and I will get back to you once I have explored your suggestions.
Joe.

[vroomy]

ok, attached

Message Edited by vroomy on 10-31-2006 04:44 PM