NI LabView integration with TSI TrakPro

[Marlboro Bane]

Hi Everyone

I am a part of a group of people trying to finish a senior design project this summer. For our instrumentation we have a few TSI SidePak AM510 Particle Monitors that we would like to integrate with National Instruments hardware and LabView software. We will most likely use a Compact FieldPoint system, but we aren't quite sure yet. I was wondering whether anyone here has had experience integrating LabView with any of TSI's instrumentation or hardware. Their software to use with the PC is called the TrakPro, which seems to be able to be programmed with HyperTerminal. If anyone can be of service we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[Pie56694]

Hi Marlboro Bane,

There is one certified instrument driver for a TSI device on IDNet, but it's for a serial constant temperature anemometer, not a particle monitor.  If the device is automated through serial, it shouldn't be hard to use the serial port on one of the equipt FieldPoint controllers to communicate with the instrument over serial.  It may be more of an issue to use the TrakPro software with or from the FieldPoint.  Answers to the following questions may help you along.

• Can you automate the particle monitor through its serial port?
• What functions do you want to automate?
• What do you want to do with the data that comes back?
• How fast do you need your loop rate?
• What else does your platform need to do?

Please post back.

[Marlboro Bane]

• Can you automate the particle monitor through its serial port?

        Actually, it only has a USB port. We are trying to look for older versions of the instrument that may have a serial port. I don't know if a USB to serial port adapater would work.

         Also, it doesn't seem like any DAQ has USB inputs, correct?

• What functions do you want to automate?

        We need it to send the data for TSP/particle sampling of the cigarette smoke to the DAQ. It would be nice if it could read in the data and control the flow rate accordingly, but

        we're too behind on the project to be able to do that right now. I think it will be an open loop system.

• What do you want to do with the data that comes back?

        We just need to monitor the TSP/particle concentration of the flow in the cigarette smoke that is flowing through our system. These will be set up at 3 sampling port areas in

        the system. Actually, we will need to do both sampling of flow and flow characterization, which will not be done simultaneously, but at different times.

• How fast do you need your loop rate?

      The duration of each experiment will be around 4-6 hours. For this kind of experiment, maybe every minute, or five minutes, would be a good rate.

• What else does your platform need to do?

       We basically need a DAQ and Instrument control device. It is going to acquire data from other instrumentation and control flowrates as well.

[Marlboro Bane]

Also, do you know if a USB-Serial adapter may work? Any ideas about how I could program/code LabView to receive the data? Thanks.

Eli Tung 

[Marlboro Bane]

We actually still want to use LabView, and not use TrakPro. I don't know if this is possible, though.

[Pie56694]

Hi Marlboro Bane,

The specifications for the IDEPAK AM510 Personal Aerosol Monitor show the only communications interface as USB 1.1.  The User Guide for the AM510 does not contain a programmer's reference, it only shows how to use the instrument with the TrakPro software.  If you want to automate the instrument from LabVIEW, you'll need an instrument driver or a programmer's guide.  You could try requesting a guide from TSI.  NI DAQ devices do not have USB ports.  DAQ devices are used to acquire data from transducers, various I/O ports are used to automate instruments.  Instrument automation is build into LabVIEW in various ways (instrument drivers, VISA, low-level serial, etc.).  There may be another way to get the data from TrakPro and to automate the device through TrakPro using LabVIEW.  This would be to call into the TrakPro software objects using Call Library Function nodes or ActiveX methods and properties.  In either case, you'll need good programming documentation from TSI for the available objects, methods and properties.

[Marlboro Bane]

I actually was able to get my computer to recognize the TSI TrakPro using this Instrument Control Tutorial (http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4478).

I was wondering- how do I access VISA from LabView in order to integrate it. Also, can I still use serial commands to retrieve data from the AM510 SideTrak since I am using a USB connection?  Thanks

[Pie56694]

To access the VISA palette, right-click the Block Diagram » Instrument I/O » VISA.

Using Third-Party USB or FireWire Devices with LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI
Why is NI-VISA Unable to Control my USB Device?

I hope this helps.

[Marlboro Bane]

Thanks for your help.

I've been looking online and found that there are example LabView codes for USB RAW control and bulk. I found out that USB RAW has control, bulk, and interrupt communication. I am slightly confused on the method that is best suited for our experiment. I know for sure that we aren't going to use bulk. For our experiment, we need the machine to continuously monitor particle concentration in our smoke and be sent back to the data acquisition system on an accurate, timely basis. I am assuming this is control?

Also the TSI engineer has provided us with serial commands to program the AM510 monitor with. I'm a bit confused because it connects to the computer using a USB port. Is there a VISA VI that lets me program serial commands with a usb port or what should I do exactly?

[Pie56694]

Hi Marlboro Bane,

How Can I Communicate With a Device Using NI-VISA USB RAW Mode?

What is USBTMC and How Can I Communicate with My USB Instrument?

Why Do the NI-VISA USB Specific Attributes Not Appear in LabVIEW Property Nodes?

VISA NI-VISATM Programmer Reference Manual

From LabVIEW » Help » Find Examples » Browse by Task » Hardware Input and Output » VISA » USB RAW - Bulk.vi, USB RAW - Control.vi, USB RAW - Interrupt.vi

I hope this helps.