Newport controller ESP300: Time out error

[Dushyant]

Hello,
I am using ESP 300 controller to control UTM25PP.1 stepper motors, both are provided by Newport. I am using two motors to move/scan the sample in YZ direction (please see the attachement), the area of scan is something like 500 X 500. If you look at the figure first Y motor moves in some equal step starting from Y_Initial to Y_Final and at each step I am acquiring a photo diode image, then Z motor moves a unit of 1 and Y motor moves to Y_Initial and this keep on repeating untill
Z_Final is reached. I have not added the code as I believe that issue is with controller (Newport was not able to help me out).

Whenever I am trying to run the code, it runs smoothly for a while and then controller reports the error that
"Communication Timeout occured" and labview also reports an error that "Input/Outpout operation aborted". When I click "OK", it runs fine for a while and then errors.

What I am doing wrong? Can I increase communication timeout on Newport controller (I beleieve that I read somewhere that it's 13 sec)? IS there anyway that automatic error handler can click "OK" so that the whole operation can run smoothly?

Thanks for looking at this message n trying to help me out.

If you believe that I should paste my code, then please let me know.
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GPIB read/write is being used to communicate with ESP300 controller and Serial read/write is used to communicate with photo diode controller.
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Thanks,
Dushyant

[JeanPierre]

I use the ESP300 controller and it times out once in a while. It mostly happens when the GPIB connection is initialized or when the application exits and sometimes during application. I used to send commands to the controller invoking a VI running Top Level but the timeouts occurred very frequently then, probably some GPIB reset when the VI exits. I had to change how I communicate with the controller. I still don't fully master the device, some timeouts still occurs and sometimes the motor stage turns OFF by itself during intense communication. I still have difficulty to detect when a move is finished. The MD? command doesn't seem to always work and measurements are taken while the motor is still running. In short, it is a hassle to program and this loud BEEP on errors in very annoying.

Unless your code specificly displays a message on errors, I think that popups occur because the auto-error handling is enable in your VI. Disable it to avoid to click OK. In VI Properties>>Execution uncheck "Enable auto-error handling".

[Dushyant]

Thanks Jean.

I will try to do as you suggested and see if I am able to solve that problem.

Regarding your problem with MD? command, I think that it works. I am attaching the code that simply moves a single motor and ask for update after each time interval defined by Delay(ms). Sometimes using too many stacked sequence can affect this command (I had the same problem as you have).

Please try my code and see if it can solve your problem. Please let me know if you have some other problem regarding ESP300..

Thanks,
Dushyant

[Dushyant]

Regarding my previous post,

Labview report this error first:
LabVIEW: Generic file I/O error.
---
NI-488: I/O operation aborted.

and then this is follwed by error report from Newport controller ESP 300.

Is something wrong in my code?

[Emilie S.]

Hi Dushyant:

It is hard to say if there is something "wrong" in your code, and I would say that if it is running properly most of the time, the code should be good. Based upon your last post, it sounds like the error may be initiated by the device and not from the program since the device reports an error, then LabVIEW tells you that I/O was terminated. Also, it is hard for me to tell exactly what is going on without having the device and because I do not have several of the subVIs in your program.

However, here are a couple of suggestions: you may want to put your error handlers outside of the while loop. Sometimes having the error handler inside the loop causes an infinte loop of pop up error messages. If it works for your application, you may want to put the error handler outside of the while loop and program the loop to stop if an error occurs. Also, in your first post you asked if there was some way to automatically hit the ok button. There is no direct way to do this, however if all you wanted to do is ignore the error, you could use the General Error Handler (found right beside the Simple Error Handler on the Time & Dialog Palette) and set it to ignore a certain error code.

Again, my first thought is that the device is causing the error and not the program, but I hope something here can help you out.

Emilie S.
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

[Dushyant]

Jean-Pierre Drolet said:

Disable it to avoid to click OK. In VI Properties>>Execution uncheck "Enable auto-error handling".
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Sorry for being dumb. But I could not figure out how to access this option. Would you please elaborate in detail?

[Dushyant]

Hi Emilie,
Thanks for responding to my message.

Earlier I used to believe that it was an error generated by Newport motion controller. However, after careful observation, I realized that labview is reporting the error first (described in previous post, error message code 6) and if I click "continue", then controller does not report an error. If I does not click "continue" for 13 sec (which is communication timeoutfor controller), then and only then controller gives some error.

Do you think that if I attach my code,that could be analyzed where I am going wrong?

[Emilie S.]

Hi Dushyant:

To find the option Jean-Pierre was talking about, go to File->VI Properties, from the pull down menu select Execution, then uncheck Enable auto-error handling.

Emilie S.
National Instruments
Application Engineer

[JeanPierre]

Which GPIB controller are you using? I use GPIB-USB-B

[Dushyant]

The GPIB controller that I am using:

PCI-GPIB