initializing motion control

[DCR]

I'm using LabVIEW 6.1 and a PCI-7342 to control a stepper motor/drive. How am I supposed to initialize which axis I want? Do I need to initialize the board in the same way I would initialize GPIB and an MCD-232?

[Jochen]

Initializing the board is necessary only after a reboot of the PC in order to set the necessary parameters for the axes and to clear the Power Up Reset flag.
You can use flex_initialize_controller (Initialize Controller.flx in LabVIEW)for this reason. In this case all parameters stored in MAX are downloaded to the board but you could also set every parameter seperately for the axis you whish with the appropriate vis or function calls.

If this doesn't answer your question please be a bit more specific about your special needs.

Regards,

Jochen Klier
Applications Engineering Group Leader
National Instruments Germany GmbH

[DCR]

Let me try to interpret. If I was to keep the PC on all the time (just having diferent people logging on), the board will stay initialized. I can control each parameter by letting it be defined by the user or I create a constant for it. Alright I understand that.

I think my real problem, though, is with an MCD-232, I need to make sure that the computer recognizes that I want to use the GPIB board and cable. I can then go through that in order to then initialize the MCD-232. Do I need to make sure that the computer recognizes the PCI-7342 card before it sends data to the particular axes, or will it understand that I'm using that card automatically and I just need to say this many steps in this direction?

~DCR

[Jochen]

I have to admit that I don't know what a MCD-232 is. But I guess from your writing that this is a motion controller that is connected via GPIB to your PC, right?
In this case the 7342 has absolutely nothing to do with the MCD-232. You need to use the FlexMotion VIs in LabVIEW to control the 7342 and GPIB or VISA functions and the vendor specific command set to talk to your MCD-232. There is no interface independant motion control API to control GPIB motion controllers and PCI-based motion controllers with the same set of VIs.

Please correct me if I'm wrong but for me it looks like there is a general misunderstandig about the way how to talk to both types of controllers.

Regards,

Jochen Klier
Applications Engineering Group Leader
National Inst
ruments Germany GmbH