LabVIEW does not recognize Thorlabs Power Meter

[hb2020]

I'm trying to write a simple program in LabVIEW to take one measurement from a Thorlabs Power Meter (Version PM200, with firmware version 1.1.7). I have the driver for LabVIEW provided by Thorlabs installed which gives VIs that allows you to do this (and I followed the instructions for writing your own applications in LabVIEW that Thorlabs provided). However, the laptop I am using will not recognize the power meter at all in the LabVIEW VIs; it's like it's not even plugged into the computer. So, I cannot get my very simple program (attached; there are three subVIs that will not show up unless you have the Thorlabs driver installed, so I have included a screenshot as well) to read any values at all because it does not know where to read them from. What should happen when you click on the I/O control is that all the possible devices show up in a dropdown menu, but the only option that shows up when I try my program is "refresh."

The thing I am probably most confused about is there is a different laptop in the lab I am working in where my program attached works perfectly fine. There is no difference between the two computers that I can tell (both using LabVIEW 2016, both Windows 10, both have same security settings, both have the same Thorlabs software). The only thing that I found that was different between the two was in the device manager: on the computer that is not working, the power meter is listed under USB devices as PM200, and on the computer that is working, the power meter is listed under USB Test and Measurement Devices as USB Test and Measurement Device (IVI), but I don't really know if there's any significance to this.

I know it is not a connectivity/USB port issue because I have tried multiple USB ports, and the power meter shows up in the device manager showing that the computer itself recognizes the device.  I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Thorlabs software multiple times, so it does not seem to be a driver issue. I have tried updating the NI software using the NI updater. I have also restarted my computer about a dozen times. The only thing that stood out to me in my troubleshooting is that the Instrument Driver in LabVIEW is listed as PM100D (an earlier version of the same device I am using), and my Thorlabs device is PM200, so I thought it might be a compatibility issue. However, this theory seems to have been debunked because my program works just fine on the other computer with the same PM100D driver.

Considering that my software works on one computer, the issue is not pressing to solve; however, the other computer is in relatively high demand by other coworkers so I would appreciate any suggestions that people have (plus I am just so stumped as to what could be the problem and want to figure it out!). Thanks in advance!

[RTSLVU]

Well to begin with I was going to ask what error you were getting but I see you did not bother to use the error cluster

You should ALWAYS connect the error cluster, even in little "test programs" like this.

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@hb2020 wrote:

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The only thing that I found that was different between the two was in the device manager: on the computer that is not working, the power meter is listed under USB devices as PM200, and on the computer that is working, the power meter is listed under USB Test and Measurement Devices as USB Test and Measurement Device (IVI), but I don't really know if there's any significance to this.

There's your answer, I had a similar issue with a Yokogawa power analyzer.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Yokogawa-WT500-through-USB/m-p/1038947#M462374

[Gregory]

Can you use the Thorlabs Optical Power Monitor software to read from the power meter?

[hb2020]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I'll make sure to connect the error cluster. I figured I didn't need to at this point because my program can't run at all without a device to read from.

What do you mean by "I think there's your answer"? I don't know how to change the other computer to match the working one. If you could elaborate on this a little bit more I would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

[hb2020]

Yes, I was able to get one certain version of Thorlabs software to read the power from the device. However, the eventual goal is to create a program that does more than just read one power value. The program I posted was just my initial test.

[Gregory]

Ok, well if you can get the Thorlabs software to read the device, then that's a good sign. If you open NI MAX, can you find your device anywhere?

It's possible that the instrument handle is filtering out some of the names. You can right click >> select VISA class >> I/O session and make sure it is set to "instr" so you see everything.

[hb2020]

I've added the error cluster and this is the error I'm getting:

"PM100D Initialize.vi<ERR>Driver Status:  (Hex 0xBFFF0011) Insufficient location information or the device or resource is not present in the system."

with the error code -1073807343. I've also attached the updated program.

[RTSLVU]

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@hb2020 wrote:

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I'll make sure to connect the error cluster. I figured I didn't need to at this point because my program can't run at all without a device to read from.

What do you mean by "I think there's your answer"? I don't know how to change the other computer to match the working one. If you could elaborate on this a little bit more I would really appreciate it.

Thanks so much.

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I edited my original post adding a link to my soultion when I had the same problem with a Yokogawa power meter.

Basically you need to uninstall the drivers you installed and reinstall them as a "USB Test and Measurement Device (IVI)" device.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Yokogawa-WT500-through-USB/m-p/1038947#M462374

[hb2020]

Aha! I read the other post; that makes sense that this would be the problem. 

Another question though--the drivers for labview were automatically installed with the Thorlabs software. Do you have any suggestions as to how I would go about uninstalling and reinstalling the driver?

And in answer to gregoryj's question, I am able to see the device in NI-MAX, but it's status is listed as "Not Present" with the error:

Status Code: -88705
The specified device is not present or is not active in the system. The device may not be installed on this system, may have been unplugged, or may not be installed correctly.

So I think the issue will probably be solved when I can figure out how to uninstall and reinstall the device as per RTSLVU's suggestion.

Thanks so much for everyone's replies! I really really appreciate all the help.

[RTSLVU]

1. Unplug the instrument USB from your computer
2. Go into the Device Manager and remove just the USB device driver for that instrument
3. Plug the instrument in to your computer
4. Follow the instructions in my previous post I linked to

DO NOT let Windows just find the drivers and install them.

You have to select "Have Disk", "let me choose driver to install" ,and "Show all compatible devices" then select USB Test and Measurement Device (IVI) from the list