Activating Programs on Different Computers

[Nproach]

Hello, I'm working in a lab where where we'll be doing testing on a number of studies. We need two different programs, one that can make sure a program on a separate computer starts at the same time as itself, and another that can examine its own data and activate a program on another computer when certain conditions are met. What I'm wondering is if Labview can be used to send orders to other computers and if so how?

[Mark_Yedinak]

Yes, it can. It is easiest if all the programs are written in LabVIEW. If not, you will either need to implement an API for communicating with applications written in other languages or use their API if it already exists. This would best be done using TCP communications.

If you are writing everything in LabVIEW you have several methods for communicating between applications. You can use shared variables or network streams. You may also use network queues to communicate between the applications. You can also use the VI server.

If you require precise timing and synchronization for the two applications this may be difficult to accomplish without some type of timing source. If you basically need things to start at roughly the same time the above approaches will work. Network communication in general is not deterministic which is why you would need some shared external timing source to get precise synchronization.

LabVIEW ships with several examples which will show you some of the above concepts. I would start looking there.