labview & testo toolbox

[alpol · Accepted solution]

Hi all again,

Like I said, I asked testo for help and they sent me a CD to install the missing software.

It seems the toolbox in testo site is not complete. There is another that installs the dll's and everything works... It was a problem with the testo files all along.

Now I have another problem: Besides the testo analyzer I am acquiring like 20 temperature values from thermocouples, a pressure value that I use to control the opening of a chimney and I acquire a weight from the signal of a scale.

Now that I have the gas analyzer working, the serial port is delaying the readouts and the signal sent to the "valve" to open, rendering the control of the opening of the valve in the chimney useless. That's what I thought anyway, but I wrote the data into a file and the timestamps are correct. The info shown in the chart in the front panel is delayed like 4 seconds.

Can I trust the data from the pressure sensor to control the butterfly opening?

How can I build a graph that shows the real time passed and not a second increment every 4 seconds?

Can I isolate the serial communication so that it doesn't  interfere with the other data?

Thanks in advance once again,

Regards,

António

[Miguel_F]

I just jumped back into this issue and realized that I was not able to load some of the .dll libraries becuase Testo does not supply the libraries that they are dependent on. Fortunately I was able to get them from a coworker, since they seem to be installed along with Testo's own logging software. I have attached the files below, since they don't seem to be available anywhere on Testo's web site.

So, I was also able to establish a connection (assumption based on the instrument's entry into "slave mode" when the correct COM port is selected), however a new issue arose. I started getting alternating error messages in the initialization sub vi, stating that the instrument was not repsonding or that an the IdCom was invalid. After poking around the developer notes for the library, I cam accross a note stating: "Currently only the WINDOWS COM-API ist (sic?) supported. You only need to supply a valid COM ordinal. COM-parameters as bytesize, # of stopbits, ... are device-related constant values and are set according to the device(name)." The device name is correct (this was tested on another computer), as was the COM port (checked in MAX). I am running all serial devices through a NI PCMCIA-232/4 card interface, since the laptop I'm using has no built in COM ports (Dell Latitude), so I'm wondering if this could possibly be an issue.

Thanks again for any help.

[alpol]

Miguel, if you have everything else working and if you are trying to connect 350-S , change the init timeout to 38000 ms and try again. If you are trying to connect another device search in the documentation for the timeout for your device. I had those alternating error messages in the initialization sub vi, and then I remembered reading in "hhtcde.chm" (in the toolbox doc's) every device has a timeout. And yes, if you are entering slave mode that is good news...

regards,

António

PS: Here are the timeouts:

exto

Suggested timeout values are:

Model	sugg. timeout [ms]
testostor171	7000
testo174	12000
testo175-177	7000
testo400-650-950	20000
testo435-635-735	7000
testo445-645-945-946-545	7000
testo350-454	38000
Hygrotest600-650	32000
RS485-Units	32000
testo454	10000
testo521-526	12000
testo580	30000

 

[Priyadarsini]

Hi Alpol & Miguel & all,

I am now working on a project where we are planning to use Testo350 Emission Analyzer. I have downloaded the Testo Toolbox and this includes a small Gas Analyzer example. The example does the Initialize, measure 4 values and close connection. But I was not able to find any manual which lists all available functions of the Analyzer. I would like to calibrate as well as measure the values of different gases (like CO etc.) from within LabVIEW.
Could you help me in finding all the available functions of the analyzer and also point out how to start with measuring the value of a specific gas?

Thanks,
Priyadarsini

[alpol]

Hi,

You probably already have these files, but this all the info we get to work in Labview with the testo analyzers. 

As for finding all the available functions of the analyzer, you should find the user manual, or use the testo software just to see what it measures.

Hope this helps... 😉

Antonio

[alpol]

Forgot to atach the files sorry...

http://rapidshare.com/files/393592491/Testo_Shared.rar.html

[Priyadarsini]

Hi Antonio,

Thanks a lot for your help and the files. I was thinking it will be helpful if I could find a programmer's manual. But as you said I have all the files and it is just that I have to compile and explore more to find all the functions. Will proceed on this research.

Thanks,
Priyadarsini

[alpol]

Hi again,

If you have downloaded the toolbox from the testo website, you won't be able to communicate with the analyzer... Contact Testo and ask them for the complete toolbox... I think it's size is over 80MB. Much bigger than the one in the website. Besides, when you install the version they supply,  It will register all the dll's correctly

Again, Hope this helps!

Antonio

[Priyadarsini]

Thanks Antonio for your help. Yes I have received the toolbox from Testo and it is ~82MB. I'll work on it and get back on the progress.

Thanks,
Priyadarsini

[Prithivi]

I am facing the same kind of issue " IdCom was invalid" when i try to initialize initialization sub vi of the testo sample labview driver. It looks same issues faced by some peoples and discussed. Could anyone suggest us to solve this issue.

Thanks

Prithvi

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@Miguel_F wrote:

I just jumped back into this issue and realized that I was not able to load some of the .dll libraries becuase Testo does not supply the libraries that they are dependent on. Fortunately I was able to get them from a coworker, since they seem to be installed along with Testo's own logging software. I have attached the files below, since they don't seem to be available anywhere on Testo's web site.

So, I was also able to establish a connection (assumption based on the instrument's entry into "slave mode" when the correct COM port is selected), however a new issue arose. I started getting alternating error messages in the initialization sub vi, stating that the instrument was not repsonding or that an the IdCom was invalid. After poking around the developer notes for the library, I cam accross a note stating: "Currently only the WINDOWS COM-API ist (sic?) supported. You only need to supply a valid COM ordinal. COM-parameters as bytesize, # of stopbits, ... are device-related constant values and are set according to the device(name)." The device name is correct (this was tested on another computer), as was the COM port (checked in MAX). I am running all serial devices through a NI PCMCIA-232/4 card interface, since the laptop I'm using has no built in COM ports (Dell Latitude), so I'm wondering if this could possibly be an issue.

Thanks again for any help.

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