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Generate a single 5 volt digital signal

Hello NI guys!

I'm new here (and not that excellent at labview either) however my team is struggling and I thought I could see if anyone here knows how to solve our dilemma.

We are trying to hook Kistler foot force plates up to labview (as far as i know, Bioware and labview don't communicate well). Anyway, we came upon the problem of needing to use our DAQpad to generate a 5 volt digital signal to send to the force plates, as they require this to essentially turn them on, making data acquisition possible from then on. 

We can't seem to figure out how to get labview to generate a signal like that.

The DAQpad we are using is NIUSB-6008 if that is necessary information.

Also our force foot plates are model 9286AA (doubt that that's necessary though).

Thanks if you guys can give any assistance!

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Message 1 of 13
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Hi,

 

How are you connecting the force plate connections to the usb-6008? I use the kistler plate with labview all the time, however I use a 25pin connector to the kistler box that came with the force plate. In side the box is a measurment computing 1616 FS, which we can program however we want in labview. In our case we have to write digital pin 4 high before entering the while looop that is used for data collection. If you know the pin or have a bare wire, then just connect it to a digital line and use the DAQ vi's to create the channel and then use digital write to pull it high. This is very similar to how you would create analog channels for data collection. I don't know what DAQpad is, so I can't help you there. Hope this gets you moving in the correct direction. See example below, you will have to pick the correct digital channel. Another thing to do is write the digital pin Low after the while loop is over, just so the pin does not stay high (put it before the end task)write digital high.png

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Message 2 of 13
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Hello,

 

I am one of the members of Tasty_Kitten's team. We are using a 37pin connector from the force plates to the kistler box that came with the foot force plate. The box came with Bioware (another programming software) and so it is set up to output data using Bioware. Our objective is to switch: so instead of acquiring data through Bioware, we would prefer to acquire the data using Labview. The reason we would prefer to use Labview is so that we can integrate other equipment.

 

We are using a 5606A Force Plate Junction Box. We called Kistler, and they informed us that we needed to send a digital signal of at least 5V into the control box in order to trigger the foot force plates to start acquiring data. As tasty_kitten mentioned, we are trying to use the NI USB 6008 to do this. A big question is - how can we tell if we have appropriately set up the VI to output digital signal? If we know that we are definitely sending a digital signal to the control box, then we can call Kistler because the fault must be from their side.

 

I did as you suggested turtl, and first I tried to write a high to only 1 pin (the operate/reset pin). When that didn't work, I tried to send digital signals through all 6 pins. That also did not trigger the foot force plates to start acquiring data. Right now we're not sure if 1) we're sending any digital signals at all or 2) where we are supposed to be sending the signals to. I have attached the connection requirements for the control box, as well as the two new VIs. (Previously, we were using the express VIs to output the signal).

 

We're using the 9-pin digital connection to connect our DAQ to the control box (see PDF). We're using force plates with integrated charge amplifiers.

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Message 3 of 13
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Don't you have access to a DMM or a scope? You can just use the test panels in MAX to write a digital 1 or 0.
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Message 4 of 13
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Unfortunately, we don't have access to either of those. What pins would you suggest wiring a digital 1 or 0 to? Please note that the relevant page on the pdf is page 2 (9 pin connection, digital).
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Message 5 of 13
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Pin 1 seems to be the operate pin.

What sort of lab doesn't have a basic dmm?
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Message 6 of 13
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By DMM, do you mean a digital multimeter? If so, then we have one of those. I used it to test the wires and I recorded the same voltages regardless of whether my VI was running or not. If you look at Trial 1 above, you will see that I set up the VI to send the digital signal through pin 1 at first. Unfortunately, my output was still just noise. Perhaps the VI is setup incorrectly?
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Message 7 of 13
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As I said, no need to write any code, though I don't see anything wrong. Use the test panel and first check directly at the output of the 6008 and then the output of the cable. You setup the device to output on line 0 of the DAQ device. Physically wiring this to the DB9 is up to you. This is really pretty basic troubleshooting.
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Message 8 of 13
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^^

I would do what he said, load up NI max, and then use the test panel to toggle the pins either high or low. Then use the DMM to probe each to make sure you are seeing 5v. If you are, then next step is to put 5V through the 37pin connector and unplug the connector from the force plate, then see if there is 5v at the circular connector. If you see 5v, then the force plate is not working. Do you have the box that came with the kistler? It already has a measurment device installed, this is how we use it, we connect the 37 pin connector to the box and then just use labview to control the pins and acquire from the analog. You might of already stated what you are using, but I might of missed it. Pretty sure we are using the same force plate and our operate/reset is on pin 23.

 

Just noticed what you are using, I recommend using pin 10 and 37 for the operate reset. I am not sure why you are using the digital and in the manual it does not say those are to operate them, they are used for logic control. I bet if you use pin10, you will be in business.

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Message 9 of 13
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Did you ever get this working? Due to lack of reply I hope you did. I am 100% sure now that you were using the wrong output since the Digital connector is used to change the axis range. You will still have to figure out what digital channel it is connected to inside the box. This is where you can use Ni-Max to toggle every digital pin in sequence and if you have a DMM connected to pin 10 (operate pin), you will see 5v when you have the correct pin toggled. In the newer bioware box I use, it is either digtal pin 0 (force plate 1) or pin 4 (force plate 2).  Well hope you have it all figure out...and if you have, you should give a kudos to who helped answer your question.

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Message 10 of 13
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