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Using Labview to Control Perisaltic Pumps through a USB Control Board

Hi,

 

I am quite new to Labview, so I apologise if this question is under the wrong category, but what i'm trying to do is to control some 4 lead bi-polar peristaltic pumps in Labview. The pumps are each attached to their own USB control board, and all the USB boards are attached in seriel with one acting as a master and the other 3 as slaves. I have never attempted this before and am trying to do it because the software supplied with the boards already is extermely poor and very buggy. So I have contacted the manufacturer of the boards/pumps asking for assitance since he was the one who suggested to use labview if the software wasnt meeting our needs. The control boards have dip switchs allowing the control to be USB or RS232. I have read around on the forums here and other people have been suggested to use VISA to send code to the pumps to allow them to run. Im using Labview 2014, on Windows 8.1 with the drivers for the USB control boards installed (FTDI virtual COM port). The pumps are UNO boxer 15K pumps and the control boards are the only control boards UNO boxer sells.

 

Any help at all to get me started would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

Jonathan

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Hi all, 

 

After reading around some more I have found out which port the setup is connected to, *USB Seriel Port (COM3)*. Currently I am trying to open a VISA connection, but in Labview when I go to select VISA resource name there are no options to select. 

 

Is this the right way to go about things? 

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First, this question should have been posted to the Instrument Control Board.

Second, does the port show up in MAX? It can't be used until it does. How does it appear in Windows device manager? I've used ftdi based devices numerous times without any issues though never with Windows 8.1. I would make sure that the ftdi and NI-VISA drivers are up to date. Please attach the images from MAX and device manager.
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Hi, Sorry for posting to the wrong board, please see the two attached files showing it in device manager and MAX, I'v just figured out i didnt have NI-VISA installed, thats why it wasnt showing up previously. It is showing up now ok, I looked up some tutorials about how to control a VISA device and saw a basic block diagram example (see attached). I suppose what i really need help with now is the labview side of things, how do i send commands to these boards?

 

Sorry for being such a novice.

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There are a couple of examples that come with LabVIEW. Neither are perfect but do provide a starting point. Basically, you initialize the port and inside some sort of loop, you send commands with a VISA Write and get the response with a VISA Read. You'll need to pay attention to any required termination characters besides the com port settings. I find it useful to do the initial testing with a program such as putty or MAX before writing any LabVIEW code. If you have problems, post the details, especially any error codes. You should also attach a copy of the programming manual.
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