how to turn off a motor ?

[jaydee]

Hi !

I have never used labview to program, and I would like to change a little stuff in an existing program. This program is used to do automatic measurements from an acquisition card and a 2 axis robot : during the measurements I would like to turn off the motors that are too noisy (the motors are controlled by a socitec card linked to the computer by RS232). I don't  think it's very hard to do, but  for me it's already tremendous !! If someone could look at my VI files and help me, it would be cool...

thanks
JD

[Khalid]

JD,

I can make that change for you.. but didn't see your Credit Card number anywhere.. just kidding! 

Seriously, if you have no experience with LabVIEW _at_all_, then you may want to get hold of someone to do this for you.  Unless you feel ambitious and see this as an opportunity to learn LabVIEW.  In which case you should dive into it.. look at the examples, write smaller programs, etc.  LabVIEW is easy to pick up.

In any case, the VIs seem to be pretty well written (from first glance).  And thanks to the descriptive icons, I can guess that the Serial instrument you're using is a Mint 3.28.  Am I right? 

So, once you know enough LabVIEW, the next step would be to get a manual for the communication protocol used by Mint 3.28 (or whatever instrument you're using).  Then figure out how to write to its Digital outs.  Maybe write a separate small program to turn the motors on and off by themsemves. 

Then, figure out what other parts of the current system would be affected by turning these motors off (there must be a reason why they're running, other than to generate the noise).  Finally, when all is accounted for, write to the instrument and silence those noisy buggers!

Let us know if you run into issues along the way. 

Good luck!

-Khalid

[jaydee]

Hi,

The instrument I'm using is indeed a Mint 3.28, and I do have the manual for the communication protocol used by Mint 3.28. However, I'm a little bit lost in Labview ... I'm gonna try to dive into the program, but I am not sure to be able to find the solution.
Anyway, thanks for your answer.

JD

[Khalid]

JD,

Thank you for taking my first post in a good spirit. 

I am sure you will do fine.  As I said, start off with the objective of writing to the Mint by itself.  Once you've accomplished this, it's easier to integrate it back into the main project. 

Please feel free to post any questions you may have as you embark on this project.

Good luck!

-Khalid