interfacing of hardware with labview

[interfacing with labview]

can u pls tell me the steps for interfacing a hardware wiht labview........ i mean to say the detailed descrpition....... for ex: interfacing keithley sourcemeter with labview....... pls do give me a detailed steps of interfacing

[Ray.R]

 Before giving any detailed steps, you'll need to tell us how you are interfacing it to the PC.

Are you using GPIB, or serial?  I doubt that they have an Ethernet interface.

Have you connected the sourcemeter to the PC?  Do you have Measurement & Automation EXplorer (MAX) installed?

Have you don any search on the types of interfaces in this forum?  Did you look at the examples under Help > Find Examples and do a search on the interface type?

[interfacing with labview]

i think its rs 232....... can u send me a detailed video or link....... so that i can learn...... pls help me with this

[smercurio_fc]

You should check to see if there's a driver available in IDNET. This will save you a lot of headaches. You will need to connect the instrument to the computer. The instrument manual will have details on how to do this. You will need to configure the instrument to communicate over serial, and you will need to set the serial port parameters, such as baud rate, stop bits, etc. More than likely the defaults will be perfectly fine. However, you will need to know what they are so you can configure the same settings at the computer side. Before you delve into the LabVIEW code you will need to verify that you can actually talk to the sourcemeter. On Windows HyperTerminal is a great tool to use. This is intended to rule out any issues in terms of cabling.

My suggestion is to start here: Instrument Control in LabVIEW Tutorial, then post back with more specific questions.

[Dennis_Knutson]

There is this tutorial on RS-232 basics. LabVIEW comes with a couple of examples (Help>Find Examples). You should also search the Instrument Driver Network to see if a driver exists for your instrument.

Since there are few standards that apply to RS-232 (except electrical), it's difficult in general to explain all of the different  ways that RS-232 can be used. You need to be especially carefule with com settings (baud rate, parity, etc), cable type (null modem, stratight-through), and termination characters. If you were to provide some specifics such as make and model of the instrument, you can get more detailed help. It's also very useful to do a lot of your initial debug with a terminal emulation program such as Hyperterminal before you do any programming.

[interfacing with labview]

Can u pls tell me wht does NI 6009 usb actually do?

              I mean to say how it works ........ how to interface with any hardware....... any videos related to that........ can u pls give me some details reguarding that...... or any tutorials...... 

[Dennis_Knutson]

Well, the USB 6009 has nothing to do with a Keithley instrument or RS-232.

There are numerous resources here. Go to the NI Developer Zone and do a search. You will obviously need to go to the 6009 page and get the manuals.

[Ray.R]

Just like Dennis said, the USB 6009 is a DAQ device which has nothing to do with a Keithley instrument, RS232 or GPIB.  In fact, it is not something that you would normally interface an instrument with.

We can't send you a video or tell you what you need to do because you have not been able to tell us what it is that you need help with.

Are you trying to learn LabVIEW?  If so, then in addition to the posts that Dennis provided, you can have a look at these tutorials.

Are you a student and you need to do some sort of project where it is recommended that you use LabVIEW?

Can you describe what it is that you are trying to do?

[interfacing with labview]

The project i'm doing is making I-V and P-V measurements on solar cells using labview...... i'm using Keithley 2602A SMU....... i don't know how to start ..... if u require any details i can give u.......

[Ray.R]

Start by downloading the LabVIEW driver, which is available in http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=7117

You should also make sure that the VISA driver is installed.  It should have been part of your LabVIEW installation.

Or a shortcut location from the Keithley website is here:

http://www.keithley.com/support/data?asset=51950

Message Edited by Ray.R on 04-11-2010 05:42 PM