Serial communication with a titrator

[azama62]

Hello all,

I will have a serially connected titrator (USB connected, not automatic) comprised of a burette, mixer and a potentiometer.
I have been given a set of commands (ASCII format, eg. B for filling the burrete, K for starting the mixer...), and I don't really know where to start with the program, hence why nothing is attached. 
LabView will be used to control the instrument (filling the burette, controlling the titration and reading the voltage). 
My question is, how do I properly communicate with the device? It has no own drivers, I cannot set up any DAQ since I don't have the device with me. I have the base parameters (9600Bd, 8bits, no parity, 1 stop bit) but that is it.
I usually start with the VISA serial, and then I get stuck in the case structure and the VISA writing. 
Should I set up more case structures (one for the titration/dosing, the other for the potentiometer)? Do I use the string constants for the commands and leave them in the ASCII? The user of the program won't write any of the commands themselves, the interface is going to be the table E/V with the appropriate buttons (dosage of the solution, mixer control and then the calculations but no assistance required with those)

I have checked out some of the examples LabView provides, but it didn't really help me further (mainly the serial communications)

[psuedonym]

You can use a simple terminal program such as Putty, TeraTerm, Termite, or NI VISA Interactive Control to verify that you have the communication set up properly and get the device(s) to do what you want.

Once you know that, then you can program in LabVIEW.

Then you can ask your programming question in the LabVIEW forum.

.

[azama62]

I am well aware of that. The controls have been verified in the app Terminal, but not from my side (I literally only have the list). As I mentioned in my first post, I do not have the device with me, so basically I program without having the chance to try it out.

Now, I tried to whip up something for the mixer, which has only two states, mixing and no mixing. I've attached the VI file here. 
My question is, does this make sense? Or should I just keep the case structure and ditch the event?
What I have in mind is - instrument connects, I click on start and the command is written on the instrument in the event structure - mixer starts, and I can see the state Start (state indicator). It should run continuously, as I understand. And when I want it to stop, it goes there. That's it.