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I am looking for some information on ELAN protocol for Siemens analyzers and also some information on AK protocol for California Analytical Analyzers. Mainly I need a starting point to communicate with these devices for labview.

Shawn, This everlasting thread serves two distinct purposes- I have drivers for the ELAN-interfaced OXYMAT and ULTRAMAT analyzers, and Kirk (EECL at Colo State's engines lab) has the AK protocol VIs for the NOXMAT devices. I expect he'll see your posts and get in touch soon. I have no idea about his summer schedule, though. Post back if you don't hear from him in a.week, I can dig up his email address. Best regards, Dave Dave
David Boyd
Sr. Test Engineer
Abbott Labs
(lapsed) Certified LabVIEW Developer
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Sounds good. 

 

Thank you very much,

 

Shawn Blaszak

Laboratory Technician

Underwriter Laboratories Inc.

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Hi, if you will email me at edward.rossino@siemens.com I will send you our ELAN manual. I'm not an ELAN expert since we typically only use ELAN (Economic Local Area Network) to communicate between two or more Siemens gas analyzers. Typical use is for dynamic correction of measured value error when some background gases are contributing (cross-sensitivity) measurement error. Example : Calomat 6 measuring H2 purity 98.5 vol% in gas mixture that has some CH4, CO2 present. Using Ultramat 6 or 23 to measure CH4, CO2 we can transmit via ELAN the measured values to the CALOMAT6 and correct the H2 reading.

 

Have not worked with Labview and ELAN.

 

Ed

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Message 63 of 266
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Ed,

 

Thanks very much for posting to the LabVIEW pages on NI's discussion forums.  As you could see, the specific thread to which you posted has been around for a long time.  It's a testament to the utility and longevity of the Siemens gas analysis devices - the oldest of the OXYMAT 6 units in daily use here at our facility was purchased in 1997.

 

I can probably fill you in a bit about the use of ELAN with LabVIEW - I originally wrote the LabVIEW code that implements ELAN about ten years ago.  I'm a manufacturing test engineer at a medical device manufacturer (Respironics, which was acquired by Philips about two years ago), and at our facility, we use a number of OXYMAT 6 and 61 analyzers in our production test processes.  They are, as I said earlier, very durable.  When I was first started here, somebody had been using the analog output from the OXYMAT, reading it with a homebrew A/D converter board of dubious accuracy, to get it into their computerized system (which also did a lot of other things involving valves, flow measurement, etc.)  The system software was unstable, so ultimately I was tasked to rewrite it, from scratch, in LabVIEW.  This is when I first learned about ELAN.  Our local Siemens rep knew nothing about it, but was able to procure me a PDF copy of the ELAN addendum; my last, best copy is dated 04/98.  Of note, I have NEVER been able to find this manual on Siemens Energy and Automation website - it appears unreleased.

 

I gather from your posting that you are not familiar with LabVIEW.  Having used it daily for over 13 years, I can tell you that the National Instruments marketing literature is essentially correct - it is by far the most popular software development environment in use for test, measurement, and data acquisition.  And there is a great online community of LabVIEW developers around the world who communicate via the NI forums, as well as through other independent websites and an email list.  Central to this community is the sharing of developed code for communicating with all the automated equipment from a long list of instrument manufacturers.

 

As you stated, one use of the Siemens ELAN protocol is for the automated cross-correcting of gas measurements between devices.  But whoever originally created the protocol made it very complete.  It is fully capable of allowing LabVIEW developers to integrate measurements, status and control of an OXYMAT, ULTRAMAT, or other device into an automation environment.  If you page back through this thread, you can see that I've shared this 'driver' code with developers in several places in the USA, plus Germany, Poland, France, Uruguay, etc.  Along the way, the thread has also picked up users looking for solutions to communicating with the rebranded California Instruments NOXMAT.  That code has been graciously shared by another LabVIEW developer, who I believe manages the Engines lab at Colorado State University.

 

I hope that this sharing of LabVIEW code in the user community is not seen by Siemens as being competitive with Siemens' own process automation software packages - I am aware of, but unfamiliar with the existence of that (SIPROM?).  Rather, it would be helpful to have Siemens participate here in support of the large community of LabVIEW developers.  If you have any updated information on ELAN, I would be grateful if you could provide it in support of us.

 

With best regards,

 

Dave 

David Boyd
Sr. Test Engineer
Abbott Labs
(lapsed) Certified LabVIEW Developer
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Message 64 of 266
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Hi Kirk,

 

I am currently setting up a DAQ system that will communicate with our Horiba Mexa bench via TCP using AK protocol. Could you please send me your code that everyone is talking about. Though the AK will most likely be different I think it will help me get started in the right direction.

 

Thanks,

Jon

 

jonathan.burton@nrel.gov

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Message 66 of 266
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With interst I have been reading this thread. At our company we have a ULTAMAT 6 gas analyzer, however, also we have problems with communicating with it with LabView.

@ Dave: Would you be so kind to send me your famous Labview files at m.vanblijderveen AT drufire DOT nl?

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Replied via private email.

 

Dave

David Boyd
Sr. Test Engineer
Abbott Labs
(lapsed) Certified LabVIEW Developer
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Message 69 of 266
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Maarten,

 

My email to you bounced; your mail server (drufire.nl) says there is no user m.vanblijderveen.  Did I get something wrong?

 

Dave

David Boyd
Sr. Test Engineer
Abbott Labs
(lapsed) Certified LabVIEW Developer
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