What do I wire to the inputs and outputs of certain motor controls?

[Smartguy]

I am just starting Labview programming and have not yet found any references containing the following motor control instructions. I am wondering what to wire (as in certain constants, controls, indicators, &c.) to MoveHome, MoveJog, MoveAbsolute (and its variants), MoveRelative (and its variants), MoveVelocity, and GetPosition. These methods cannot be used with just reference inputs and outputs, but also might need to have wired errors, the wiring spots next to the methods' names, IChanID, bWait, IJogDir, fAnglePosCh1 (& 2), IMoveMode, IDirection, & pfPosition. Those are the main connections that I currently do not understand. And since I do not know the basic syntax of LabView, I cannot yet make the most basic of programs to control the few motors that I must automate. All help is appreciated.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Duplicate; http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/What-are-the-parameters-and-outputs-of-the-activex-methods/m-p/29003...

[Smartguy]

Yes, same idea, but would you be able to give brief descriptions of the inputs and outputs?

[Bob_Y.]

You mention in both posts that you are new to LabVIEW. Are you also new to programming in general?

It sounds like you are using the ActiveX interface that LabVIEW has to interact with the text based ActiveX Properties and Methods of the motor controller. If your question is how to use the motor controller's Properties and Methods (what data to put in), you should talk to the make of the dll that you are pulling the ActiveX Properties and Methods from. If you are asking how to create a constand or control and wire that into the input so that you can get data to the ActiveX Properties and Methods, you should look at some of the examples or take a tutorial.

So, back to your question about some specific inputs. Experience tells me the following. It also tells me that I could be wrong and the documentation or motor controller suport folks should be able to correct those mistakes.

IChanID = a long integer that represents the Channel of the motor or controller. Probably an output from an intialization step or routine and input to everything else.

bWait = a boolean that represents if it should wait (for a response?).

IJogDir =a long integer that represents the direction that the motor will move (jog). (Probably expecting 1 or -1 ?)

fAnglePosCh1 (& 2) = floating point number that represents the commanded angle position - it may be in radian, or degrees, or encoder counts, or stepper motor steps or. . .

IMoveMode = a long integer that represents the movement mode. I have no idea what that could entail as it would be specific to the controller.

IDirection = a long integer that represents the direction of motor movement. (Probably expecting 1 or -1 ?)

pfPosition = I am not sure what a pf would represent. It is probably a floating point number, but I am not sure what the p would represent. The data in that variable would be the position of the motor. I don't know if it is returning the position or is an input for setting the position. I also don't know the units (see fAnglePosCh1 above).

I hope this helps, but your questions need to be more specific as to if you are looking for how to use LabVIEW or how to use the Properties and Methods that are exposed by this ActiveX interface. LabVIEW questions are answered here, Property and Method questions should be ansered by the supplier of the controller. We can help you with how to "write" but not what to "write" to the interface.