Hi all,
I'm designing a Teststand system (TS 4.1, LV8.5, parallel model). I have several instruments - scopes, DMM, DC source etc that I will be using in the sequence.
I wish to design several common "instrument servers" (written in LV). Each instrument server will control a specific instrument and will provide a front panel and various controls to monitor/change instrument parameters interactively. The instrument servers will run locally on the client tester pc.
Normally these LV instrument servers will run invisibly in the background, controlled by the test sequence - the instruments will be shared by all sequence sockets. However when required the servers' front panels will be displayed, and when single stepping through sequences will be used to interact with the instrument settings and readings while debugging.
Because these testers are remotely located I regularly use the very robust application "VncViewer" via our company WAN to control my remote tester desktops. The instrument server approach will allow me to monitor remote measurements and waveforms when remotely singlestepping through TS.
Now to my query.....
I intend starting each instrument server VI from TS in a separate thread, and then controlling the instrument servers using TS queues. There will be a read and a write queue, i.e. enqueue in TS to set DMM range and triggering, and then dequeue in TS to get DMM reading back. I may even use a notification to check when the instrument has acquired its data. I may have to flatten the returned instrument data to stick it into the queue - haven't studied that yet.
Does this sound like an exceptable solution or am I just making my system overly complex? Am I missing a simplier more elegant solution (VI server perhaps - or is this a bit fragile)?
I would appreciate replies from anyone who has attempted the "instrument server" approach.
