Using LabVIEW to program Princeton Instruments PI-MAX CCD Camera

[RSGR]

I am doing a Cathodoluminescence experiment in which I am using one computer which has LabVIEW to control the temperature measurements and another computer which has WinSpec running on it for spectral measurements. I would like to know how do I integrate these two systems (Integrating the two computers I heard was not easy as WinSpe is pretty much a closed measurement software). I have a Princeton Instruments PI-MAX CCD Camera controlled by Princeton Instruments ST-133 Controller with a PTG-(Programmable Timing Generator) connected to the second computer. The LabVIEW system has a Lakeshore Cryotronics Model 330 Temperature Controller. I know that the PTG in ST-133 Controller can take TTL signal and can send them too. I wanted to use the serial port on the first computer to communicate with the controller. It would be a great help if anyone could direct me in the right direction.

P.S: I am new to LabVIEW and WinsSpec softwares.

[James_D]

Greetings,

LabVIEW is certainly capable of producing serial output. Just to clarify, are you awnting to use the LabVIEW computer to send serial TTL signals to the Temperature Controller? Also, if you're new to LabVIEW you might take a look at our getting started guide:

http://www.ni.com/gettingstarted/

Thanks,

James Duvall

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[drjdpowell]

You should investigate the possibility of using the SITK Toolkit to run the Princeton camera from under LabVIEW, as an alternative to WinSpec.  Then everything would be on the same computer and under the same program.  In the past I've used it with a PIXIS camera.  Just a suggestion.

-- James

[RSGR]

Hi

Sorry for the late response. I want to use the serial port of the computer to communicate witht the ccd camera. The ccd camera has two ports namely scan and ready. using these could I program when to send a ttl signal for starting the ccd camera and then when the spectrograph is done it should send a signal back saying its done. This is the kind of communication that I need to have....

[James_D]

Good morning, I recommend that you take a look at the Basic Serial Read and Write example VI that ships with LabVIEW. You can find it by going to Help, selecting Find Examples, and then searching for Serial.

[EyeSpec]

Here is a working version to run Winspec or Winview trough labview. You need Winspec or Winview to use the vi's.

It uses Microsoft Automation to go trough Winspec/Winview. It supports any detector/spectrometer supported by Winspec.

make sure that you get the Winspec/Winview running first before attemting to use the examples.

Regards,

[JC_404]

I was reading through this olded post and was needing some help. I am trying to use labview to control a motorized stage for 2-D spectroscopic mapping of a sample. The spectroscopic software is winspec from a spec-10 ccd (princeton instruments) and I was wondering how i can send a signal out from winspec to signal the stage to move to next next point after acquiring data at the previo point.

[antony_sc]

Hi. Do you have the possibility to post the VI for the control of the CCD for Labview 8, as I do not have the version 9?

Thanks

Virgilio

[Eric-J]

Try posting the code on the Version Conversion Forum. There should be someone who can convert it back to version 8 for you.