Hi! I am trying to get data from an AR 200-100 laser. I tried using the analog inputs and connect it to a MyDAQ. This worked, but there is a lot of noise. I then tried to connect the laser with a serial cable. See the attachment file. I am able to read the data on a graph with no noise. The issue that the values are pretty off compared when I was using the analog inputs. With analog when the laser was 5 cm away from an object, then it would show about 5 volts on the graph. With serial it shows 20,00. I could convert the data by using numerics, but it doesn't seem right when data isn't even showing any decimals.

1) Let me fix that link for you: http://www.disensors.com/downloads/products/AP600%20Laser%20user%20manual_1094.pdf2) Since you are only getting 1 measurement at a time, just use the Fract/Exp String To Number function to get your value. There is an input on the top for "Use System Decimal Point". You will want to wire a FALSE constant to that since you apparently use the comma as the decimal point instead of the period that the instrument does.

LabVIEW

Instrument with serial cable to graph

Solved!

Read the manual. You will see that your Instrument does not know the *IDN? command. What you need to do is command the instrument to output at the rate you want (command to set rate and then command to start) before your loop. Now it will continually send the data. So you just read inside the loop. And do NOT use the Bytes At Port. The data ends with your termination character, so just tell VISA Read to read 20 bytes and you will get exactly one reading per iteration.

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LabVIEW

Instrument with serial cable to graph

Re: Instrument with serial cable to graph