We are able to control the Thorlabs TDC001 using ActiveX in Labview. However it shows some odd behaviour and I was wondering whether anybody else here has observed similar things and has a solution:
1.) Calibration: a) it seems that one has to send the motor to the limit switch before one can reset the current position: After a power failure the device forgets where it was, so now all one would have to do (at least it seems) is to look at the rotation stage and set the position to the reading, but that does not work. However after going to the limit switch one can set the position by sending the proper command. b) Where in the world is (are) the limit switch(es)? The stage seems to move to random positions when trying to do this.
2.) Movement: once we were able to calibrate the stage typically eveything works fine for a while, but after a moving back and forth for a while the TDC at some point decides to only move in the positive direction! That is suppose the stage is located at 30 degrees and one asks the stage to go to 29 degrees it goes around almost 360 degrees, which is really not what we want as it might break some of the cabeling attached to the stage.
I know that this is not so much a LabView problem but more an issue of the stage and its funny ActiveX control, but maybe somebody reading this had similar problems?
Thanks!
