LabVIEW Control of Valco/VICI Universal Actuator EUTB (USB)

[Canadan]

Hello,

I am trying to automate control of a Valco/VICI Universal Actuator EUTB  (USB) using LabVIEW. The manual for for this product can be found here:

http://www.vici.com/support/manuals/universal-actuator.pdf

with a list of commands on page 3 (page 6 of the PDF). LabVIEW automation of this device has been discussed to some extent in this topic although I am still having trouble:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Instrument-Control-GPIB-Serial/Serial-Commands/m-p/566678/highlight/true#M25...

I am able to see the device in MAX, but I have tried sending command to it both via the VISA test panel and the Serial Read and Write and USB Raw examples and have been unable to get any response. I've tried commands such as:

/?

/?\n

/?\s\n

/?\r

/?\s\r

/?\s\r\n

/?\s\n\r

/?\s\r\s\n

/?\s\n\s\r

and similarly for GO1 instead of /?.

It would be great if someone could give me some advice about how to get this to work?

Thanks,

Dan

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

Have you tried contacting their tech support if there is one?

LabVIEW and NI is very common, so they might already have anwers for you.

[Canadan]

Unfortunately they don't provide any LabVIEW support.

[Dennis_Knutson]

How are you seeing the device in MAX? You should only see a com port. Hopefully, you didn't run the VISA wizard to create USB driver.

[Diego_Sanchez]

Did you try sending the serial commands that are in the manual (see page 7). For example ID* in the VISA test panels. If you don't have a response you might want to change be sure that you are configuring the test panels as follows (page 3 of your manual)

-9600 baud,

-no parity,

-8 data bits,

-1 stop bit,

-no hardware or software handshaking.

If still doesn’t work, try changing the I/O Settings in VISA test panels, you might need to change the Termination character for example and see if it works with \n or \r or \r\n.

[Canadan]

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@Dennis_Knutson wrote:
How are you seeing the device in MAX? You should only see a com port. Hopefully, you didn't run the VISA wizard to create USB driver.

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I'm afraid I did. Is that going to be a problem?

Diego, thanks for the suggestion, I believe they were all set correctly but I will double check...

Dan

[Diego_Sanchez]

If you want to talk with your device over the serial (RS232 - RS485) you won't see your hardware in MAX, thats how it works. If you are using any other interface (GPIB, USB, network) you will be able to see your hardware listed in MAX.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Yes, its a problem. You deleted the correct serial driver. Remove the driver you created and reinstall the original.

[Canadan]

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@Dennis_Knutson wrote:
Yes, its a problem. You deleted the correct serial driver. Remove the driver you created and reinstall the original.

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I see. There wasn't a disc supplied with the hardware though, and no manufacturer driver that I'm aware of. Do I just need to remove the VISA driver and then try controlling it using one of the example VIs?

[Dennis_Knutson]

You can try that but typically a USB-Rs232 converter needs a windows driver. If you see a new com port on MAX, then you can try the LabVIEW driver.