LBA-USB-SP Spiricon Beam Profiler Examples in Labview

[shredderofmass]

I am trying to get a Spiricon Beam Profiler working inside of a labview shell. The Examples they gave me just crash. I tried reading thier documentation but it wasn't that great. Has anyone out there done this already? Even one working VI in LV 8.6 or greater would be nice. I am using the spiricon sp620u camera. I have the latest version of LBA-USB-SP software. Anyone?

[lab_boy]

Hello Shredderofmass, After doing a little bit research on how to control Spiricon Beam Profiler with LabVIEW, I found out that it can be done using the ActiveX object in LabVIEW. You find the detail steps in how to do it in the user manual page 160. For getting started on how to use ActiveX objects in LabVIEW you can refer to thishelp document.  Good Luck 

nAyer

[shredderofmass]

Yeah, I looked at that. It didn't help me much. I couldnt get thier examples working, much less figure out what they might have been for if they in fact did work. A complete lack of documentation, cryptic names, and such left me mystified. Along with the fact that they just dont do anything. I got an email back from the company as follows.

EMAIL FROM SUPPORT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Thank you for contacting us.  My name is Tralfaz and I'm in the Service Department.

The LBA and BeamStar function via ActiveX.  Right now Microsoft requires that both programs be non minimized in order to keep the ActiveX link established.  If you minimize either the LBA or BeamStar the link is broken and you must restart both them and LabVIEW.

Where we see a large problems is customers open the LBA or BeamStar and then the LabVIEW example in LabVIEW.  When they move from LBA or BeamStar into LabVIEW they minimize LBA or BeamStar to the task tray instead of just clicking on LabVIEW to bring it to the front of the screen.  When this is done it breaks the ActiveX link.

The other large problem we see is customers trying to run the LBA and BeamStar examples without first launching the LBA or BeamStar.  These applications must be launched before the example is opened because it needs to establish the ActiveX link.

Please let me know if this helps, or if we can be of further assistance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that kinda gives me an uneasy feeling about thier software, I have never heard of an activeX component demanding that kind of special treatment. I just want to do my experiment, I can't deal with that. 

I was wondering if anyone had actually made the examples work or actually controled thier LBA software with Labview.  I can't send someone into the field with a program that crashes when some other program gets minimized. 

[Tera-Engineer]

The examples work just fine, they say that the LBA-Application needs to be opened, and configured to work with your SP620U camera.  If you want to do a quick and dirty way of running a stand alone program, find a way to open the LBA program within labview and then have the .vi bring itself to the front.  That is what I am currently trying to do.  The reason for LBS to be open is because it creates the connection with the camera, all the Active X is doing is talking to the LBA software.  I am able to get a full 30 fps running continuously at 640 x 480.  If anyone knows how I can call a program to be opened in Labview let me know please.

~Dan

[shredderofmass]

You re-iterated what the guy from the company said. "Right now Microsoft requires that both programs be non minimized in order to keep the ActiveX link established."   This is clearly evidence that they did the active X programming wrong. i use Active X all the time and it never has this requirement. Including talking to active X cameras that come with thier own software/beam profiling suite. 

The requirement that they 'both be non-minimized' or the prgram crashes was unacceptable. It still is. I need to integrate this. If the user accidentilly "non maximizes" this and severs the active x link, errors  could freeze the OS interface, then the laser goes off course and inocent bystanders  die a painful death. If they are lucky it would be a quick death depending on where they get hit. 

Frankly I get the impression that these guys didn't really want thier software integrated.

They are   releasing a proffessional version of thier software that will have a formal Software developers Kit. This may be the final solution. It is due out sometime in Feb 2010. But I may be doing all the beam diagnostics myself with IMAQ. 

[russ.leikis]

Hello,

I've stumbled across your thread here via Google.  I'm curious what your end result was here.  I've been the Software QA lead at Spiricon for several years and we work very closely with most all of our automation interface customers for both the ActiveX in the older LBA product and for the .NET integration in BeamGage Professional that was released earlier this year.  We have many customers that have have not experienced the same problems as you've described here.

This customer service response you got, whom were you speaking to?  We don't recognize anyone by the name of Tralfaz.  The response you got doesn't exactly fit reality.

If you are still working with our products and have questions please visit our website and contact Ophir-Spiricon customer service.  BeamGage Professional is available for evaluation on our webiste.  Instead of ActiveX, a .NET integration package is included.

If you find this, let me know how your efforts turned out.  Cheers!

[shredderofmass]

I gave up on them.

[shredderofmass]

I've had BG pro for some time now. It stopped working. The first computer I put the camera on will still recognize it, but not all computers will, most act as if the camera is dead. I sent it back on RMA and have not heard from them. It has been some time now. The painful experience is over with, thank god, and I am not looking back. I am not going to post here everything I have to say about it.

[russ.leikis]

I'm sorry to hear that.  I don't think you were put in touch with our software team, and I'm guessing you and I have not spoken formally before.  I've yet to handle a customer problem with BeamGage Pro that wasn't able to be resolved reasonably fast. If you have any interest, I'd be more than happy to get in contact with you via professional channels and get your system working and track down your RMA.

I hate to sound like I'm just defending my company and coworkers, but I do believe it's odd that your RMA and support request went the way it did.  That's just from the support myself and those around me give.  We truly work hard to solve the problems we get quickly and thoroughly.  I'll apologize myself for the problems you've had.

If you purchased your BeamGage system and want to get it working again, please contact me.  softwareqa [at] ophir-spiricon [dot] com  This is the same email address listed in the BeamGage application and documentation for reporting problems with our software.

Best of luck to you though if you decide not to though!

[Igor_Titov]

Dear Russ,

We are having very similar problems with your product not working normally with LabVIEW, and I wrote a letter to the email that you mentioned here. It was about a week ago and there is still no answer. Is it possible to create normal VISA-compatible driver as other manufacturers do? Because if not, we'll be forced to return the camera back and find another solution - our system is completely based on LabVIEW. By the way, if you do it VISA-compatible, it will be possible to use your instruments with real-time OS, not just on Windows. So, could you please provide some e-mail, where we can contact somebody who can solve this problem? I'm very sorry if it seems to you like a harsh tone, but when we were choosing the camera, LabVIEW compatibility was one of our key requests and we were assured by your company that yes, it even has ready to use LabVIEW drivers. In reality though it's too far from LabVIEW drivers. If you doubt that you can send the "drivers" to NI for certification on idnet. 

Sorry one more time, but we spent lots of time in vain on this issue.

Best regards,

Igor.