Stepper Motor speed control using PCI 6036E DIO

[shifat046]

Dear Altruists,

I am learning Labview and I need to control a stepper motor using PCI 6036E. DAQmx toolbox is completely new to me and I have no idea how to design a program using Digital I/O ports.

Can you please help me?

[DuncanW. · Accepted solution]

Hi shifat046,

I would recommend checking out the resources below to help you get started using DAQmx with Digital I/O:

Learn 10 Functions in NI-DAQmx and Handle 80 Percent of your Data Acquisition Applications

http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/2835/en/

Getting Started with NI-DAQmx (more general resources)

http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/5434/en/

--

These links have documentation that will help you learn the basic design principles for DAQmx applications. To see these principles in action, I would highly recommend you check out the LabVIEW shipping examples. You can find these in LabVIEW under Help>>Find Examples... and then either navigating into Hardware Input and Output>>DAQmx or searching for keywords that are more specific to your particular DIO project.

It can often be helpful to use one of these examples as a template for building your application as they already contain the hardware I/O configuration VIs used in most DAQmx applications.

Finally, don't be discouraged if you struggle with LabVIEW and DAQmx at first. There can be a substantial learning curve for new users. I would encourage you to keep posting on these forums with any further questions or problems you have to leverage the experience of the users here. There is also a wealth of additional training and documentation available online for free that you can find with a quick Google search. If you are having trouble thinking of what to search for, I would be happy to help you find the proper resources to answer your question.

Best,

Duncan Waldrop

Applications Engineer

National Instruments 

[Kevin_Price]

I fully endorse what DuncanW already wrote.  A few additional thoughts:

1. the terminology "DAQmx toolbox" makes me think you're using Matlab.  Please indicate whether you'll need solutions that apply to Matlab-based text programming.   Many contributors (including me) on the hardware boards tend to assume LabVIEW unless otherwise specified.

2. Hopefully you already have a power driver and a controller that will accept Step & Direction (and perhaps also Enable) signals.  If so, you should use a counter task for the step pulses while using regular DIO for the Direction and Enable signals.  Be careful of your sequencing -- set the Enable and Direction *before* issuing pulses, wait until after pulses are done before Disabling.

3. Finite pulse trains (for moving fixed distances) on your 6036 will require *both* counters even though you only configure one of them for output.  Just an FYI.  (I was recently in a more in-depth discussion here if you'd like to understand more.)

-Kevin P