How can one communicate with a nanonics based driver and 3d flat scanner through labview?

[uofc]

I'm new to labView and have just began trying to design a VI that will control a Nanonics 3D flatscanner in the X, Y, and Z axis'. The device used to communicate with the scanner is also nanonics based (Three Channel High Voltage Bipolar driver ISA Board) and I'm unsure of how to configure it or communicate with it using labView. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Attached is a very basic VI designed by others that is able to pass a constant signal and move the scanner in the X-axis (channel 1, address 248), y-axis (channel 2, address 24a) and z-axis (channel 3, address 24c) in only one direction in a constant motion.

[nestor-sg]

The easiest way of communicating to 3rd party hardware with LabVIEW is when the manufacturer of that hardware supplies C based DLLs (shared libraries) that would be used to control the hardware from like Visual C++, Borland, etc. We have on the web good documents describing how to access this DLLs with LabVIEW, please check the chapter Integrating DLLs with LabVIEW which is here in the Developer Zone.

When the 3rd party hardware does not has any DLLs or already built LabVIEW drivers, you may do register level programming and access memory addresses to give direct commands to the hardware, when this needs to be done you will use the In Port and
Out Port function as the way your "basic VI" example does. For more information or example programs using it you may try www.ni.com and in the "search" text box type { +"In Port" +"Out Port" }, which will give you a number of documents, how to's and examples. For more specific questions on these functions please try the LabVIEW discussion forum instead of the Motion forum since LabVIEW advanced users will be of much more help.

Regards,

Nestor Sanchez
Motion Control Support
National Instruments

[research08]

Hi

I am new to labView and have begun to control the motion of Nanonics 3D flatscanner in the X, Y, and Z axis'.  I have labview 8,  Let me how to configure it using the labview.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I have to move the scanner randomly in X, Y, and Z axis'.

[James_McN]

Hi,

The code you sent appears to be using register level programming for this.  You will need to find out the locations and what we need to write to the board but the location of the VIs to use this in LabVIEW 8 is described in http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/E6415E8A8376F63D86256C46007592E8?OpenDocument

Regards,

[research08]

Hi

I have already IV control  that control the scannerr motion and used for data collection. Now I have to move the already builtin scanner   in X ,Y and Z direction by changin the voltage along X, y and Z direction so that I can move the scanner in one direction or 2 direction.  Should I have to used the PCI-6534 digital card  for accurate movement of scanner in require direction or to write the programm C++ for the  movement of  the scanner using labview 8.  Either I have to buy some software driver or  Card to operate the scanner. 

[James_McN]

Hi,

If you are changing voltages then you may need an analog output card instead if the signal must vary.  If you are using either our analog output cards or the 6534 digital card then you can use the DAQmx driver to program them which can be used in LabVIEW or C++.  For LabVIEW 8.0 you will need DAQmx 8.7.1 or earlier which can be downloaded at http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/965/lang/en.

Regards,