Newport YAG Laser power supply serial control

[labviewman]

I just noticed on the example program, the baud rate is supposed to be 4800 (not 9600), and yes, 2 stop bits

[labviewman]

Good point about the EOL.

[labviewman]

I sent this reply, but it didn't show up for some reason...

Good point about the EOL constant...

I also noticed from the example in the .pdf, the baud rate should be 4800 not 9600, and b) # of stop bits IS 2

Attached is an updated vi

[labviewman]

I sent this reply eariler this morning but it has yet to show up, so I will try again.

Good point aboit the EOL constant!

I also noticed a) the baud rate should be 4800 not 9600, b) and the number of stop bits IS 2.

Attached is an updated vi

[smercurio_fc]

Not yet shown up where? The original replies have been there since this morning. Are you viewing the board through a newsreader, or through some other interface?

[labviewman]

Doh!  I didn't get the e-mail response from NI nor did I see it now has 2 pages. 

Sorry for the confusion

[Karl T.]

Hi again,
Thanks for the program! I really appreciate your help here, and it's good to see how these VI's should be written.

I tried out the VI, but it didn't turn on the laser. I'm not really done pursuing all the paths here, I need to tinker with this some more, the answer might be less of a labview issue.

Just wanted to thank you guys for all the help!

Karl

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Karl:

Does the laser or the supply have a hard-wired safety interlock that needs to be closed in order for the laser to fire?

[labviewman]

Maybe the commas don't belong but are acutally command delimiters and should be replaced with carriage return\linefeed, but I really don't know. 

AnalogKid has a good point...maybe there is a hardware-interlock preventing it from turning on. 

Try some simple sequence of commands and see what happens (maybe read a status of some sort).  I don't like communicating with an instrument or ECU that doesn't talk back; try a VISA-read just before you close the reference to see if it is responding.

Is the manual on-line somewhere?  That would help us diagnose the problem.

Glad to help...where are you located?  It would be funny if you were around the crner from me (Farmington HIlls, MI).

[Karl T.]

That's something I'm wondering about:
The laser does have an interlock, so before running the program I close the interlock, and turn the switch on the front. If I wanted to turn it on manually, at this point I would press the switch on the front of the power supply. Instead, I flip the control switch from local to computer, and run my program. It seems like there are a lot of options here: do I turn the key on the front, or not? Obviously (I think) the interlock has to be closed.

Right now I'm just trying to run this from a computer that is right there, but soon we will want to control it from a separate room. I don't have much experience with lasers and interlock systems.