LabView and Spider8 from HBM

[iagfunk]

I am using LabView together with the AD-converter 'Spider8' from HBM. I
downloaded the LabView driver for this measurement device from the NI
homepage. Now I have got problems with data acquisition, it doesn't work at
all. Furthermore, the system is very unstable. Can anybody help me?

[Aaron Marks]

Are you getting any error messages from the VI's or does the device just not seem to respond at all? Are you able to communicate with the device properly outside of LabVIEW? Also, which drivers are you using exactly? I didn't see any drivers for the spider8 on the NI site.

[iagfunk]

I solved the problems a few days ago. Soon I will tell what were the problems.

[iagfunk]

I cannot tell exactly why the data acquisition process didn't work, but now everything is fine. So I will give some remarks on what could have been the reason:

First of all, my operating system is NT4.0 with SP6. The Spider 8 is now equipped with the latest firmware, which can be obtained from the HBM homepage. The Spider is connected with the notebook via the serial port. First I chose a baud rate of 9600, now I use 38400. The cable has got a length of about 1 meter. Perhaps the old firmware caused some problems...

A big problem were the error messages which sometimes didn't make sense to me. After some errors had occured, I didn't turn the Spider off and on, and the error messages were strange. I think it is important to open/close the device/port correctly. W
henever this is not true, the Spider should be turned off and on.

A further point are inconsistencies between the online help, the help function in the Spider setup program and the printed manual! This is not very useful!

Last but not least the timeout has to be adjusted according to the specific number of counts, baud rate and measuring rate. In most cases the baud rate will be the limiting factor, but don't forget the measuring rate! E.g. with 1 channel, 2000 counts, 200 Hz a timeout of about 5s would be sufficient regarding the baud rate, but daq lasts for 10s. So in this example, the timeout has to be adjusted in respect to the measuring rate.

[alexjunk]

I used the spider 8 and labview with the tools provided on the hbm web site, and followed the so-called installation procedure, installing the spider 32bits dll in the windows/system directory, then pasting the spider vi library in my user.lib labview directory....it is working approximatively through the parallel port...did not try the serial one...maybe I should....anyway, none of my displacement sensors did not work properly: with a sensibility of 500mv/v, I always obtained aberrant values, when I did not previously tared the sensor using catman....anyway the spider works perfectly with catman.....

[JuanL]

I am reading your inputs with respect the use of the Spider8 with Labview. I would like to receive help with respect this issue.

First at all say that my spider8 is version P13 (quite old). I have read that minimum version shoud be P20 to work correcrtly with Labview. I haven't downloaded the latest firmware yet.

My operating system is Windows XP SP2, Labview6.1 and I am using parallel port from spider8 and PC.

With this configuration I copied the spider32.dll into the windos\system forder and asted spider vi library in the user.lib labview directory...

I tried to run one of the spider8 examples with labview and did not work. A message related with the file S8_InitAll.vi was raised.

Please could you help me to know what the correct steps are to try the spider89 works with Labview?.

Cheers....

[Scott Y]

I was not able to find much in the way of documentation on the HBM website regarding the drivers you mentioned. There is also no mention in any of our support databases of errors from S8_InitAll.vi

If you post more specific information about the nature of the error, possibly in a new thread, there is a better chance that someone who has used this device before will be able to help.

This Tutorial has information regarding how to properly call functions from DLLs using the call library node. This may be helpful in trouble shooting the error from S8_InitAll.vi

Scott Y
NI

[wanderleyff]

I have run the firmware sp8firm32 and de archive sp32, both can be downloaded in the hbm website, and my example started to run. don`t forget to install the dlls papo32, sipder 32, intfac32 and interlnk in the windows\system path.I have 2 examples and one shows the mesured value in the port and the other plots graph in the screen of the signal mesured in the port. The first example runs both in COM2 and LPT1 and the other does not works with the COM2 port. My OS is windows 98, labview version 6i.
I hope this help you.
If you need the archives email-me wanderleyff@gmail.com.
I`m interested in LABVIEW real time daq with Spider8 and if you or anybody could help me I would be pleased.

Thanks

[R.Rabe]

I’m using Spider8 and LV for a small control system at more than 2 years now. System was Pentium3, LV 6.1 and Win 2000. Spider with the P22 firmware version.

The main communication was trough LPT1 in EPP mode. You even could set it at 9600Hz_no filter measuring rate without any error message in Spider32 setup or LV

and without any big a problem to run the provided Vis from HBM.

BUT the good days are gone…I have updated everything. Now is a P4, WinXP pro and  LV7.1. All my programs, including the original HBM LV examples cannot run perfectly. It seems as the connection is not fast enough. Reading values includes a lot of “Infinite” values. I have tried all possibilities in the parallel communication (EPP, Nibble, Bit 8..) and it is always the same problem. Spider32 setup still can read it but seems a lot slower now.

A review: I took the chance and I have installed the last DLLs (due a new installation of Spider32 setup). The computer Bios (Compaq EVO D500) accepts EPP+ECP only (the old one was free to choose EPP only). HBM home page doesn’t present any Firmware version to download (you click in download-firmware and it is empty). The HBM LV example (Example 1) only works fine if before you turn off Spider8 AND doesn’t run Spider32 setup before running the example (almost an useless solution…)

I’m still working around this problem but I’m running out of options.

Any advice is welcome as well as was a place where I still can download the last firmware version.

Thanks,

Rodolfo

[Andreas]

Hi Rodolfo,

i would recommend you using catman activeX under Labview to acquire
data from HBM amplifier systems (including also Spider8). The big
advantage is, that you have all options to control your DAQ process.
There is one little disadvantage: catman activeX is not free of charge.
For Labview there are some examples which show how to access data via
catman activeX.

I guess, the best way is contacting a sales representative of HBM
(http://www.hbm.com) to get further information. May be, he has a demo
version for you (almost catman professional including the catman
activeX interface).

Best Regards
Andreas

R.Rabe schrieb:

> I?m using Spider8 and LV for a small control system at more than 2 years now. System was Pentium3, LV 6.1 and Win 2000. Spider with the P22 firmware version.
>
> The main communication was trough LPT1 in EPP mode. You even could set it at 9600Hz_no filter measuring rate without any error message in Spider32 setup or LV
>
> and without any big a problem to run the provided Vis from HBM.
>
> BUT the good days are gone?I have updated everything. Now is a P4, WinXP pro and  LV7.1. All my programs, including the original HBM LV examples cannot run perfectly. It seems as the connection is not fast enough. Reading values includes a lot of ?Infinite? values. I have tried all possibilities in the parallel communication (EPP, Nibble, Bit 8..) and it is always the same problem. Spider32 setup still can read it but seems a lot slower now.
>
> A review: I took the chance and I have installed the last DLLs (due a new installation of Spider32 setup). The computer Bios (Compaq EVO D500) accepts EPP+ECP only (the old one was free to choose EPP only). HBM home page doesn?t present any Firmware version to download (you click in download-firmware and it is empty). The HBM LV example (Example 1) only works fine if before you turn off Spider8 AND doesn?t run Spider32 setup before running the example (almost an useless solution?)
>
>  
>
> I?m still working around this problem but I?m running out of options.
>
>  
>
> Any advice is welcome as well as was a place where I still can download the last firmware version.
>
>  
>
> Thanks,
>
>  
>
> Rodolfo