Newport Optical Power Meter timeout

[Driley13]

Hi,

I'm controlling a Newport 842-PE optical power meter with Labview 8.  All I would like to do is simply conduct a multi-point measurement of arbitrary length and sampling rate.  What I've been doing is using the Newport provided drivers to tell the power meter to start logging and then stop logging using the "Setloggingstart-top.vi".  Then I use the "filedownload.vi" to get the array from the power meter.  At seemingly completely random times the filedownload.vi will output a timeout error and no data will be collected.  The timeout error doesn't necessarily seem to simply be due to the power meter doing something weird.  The driver's condition for a timeout is very strange and difficult for me to understand.  I've attached an image of the .vi I've been using to attempt to diagnose the problem.  It simply repeats this logging command and filedownload command indefinitly so I can see when it times out.  Here is an image of it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/RjfKOeq7FedLE758aoi5Zw?feat=directlink

Does anyone have experience using Labview with this power meter?  Can you think of an alternate or correct path I should be taking to conduct a multi-point measurement?  So far the techies at Newport haven't been able to figure out why this is happening.  Please let me know if there's any other information you would like me to provide.

Thanks,

Dan

[Sammy Z]

Dan,

Would you attach those 2 vis so we can open them and see what those sub-vis are doing?

I tried to find them on Newports website but I didn't see them.

Thanks,

Sammy Z.

[Driley13]

Yes I'll post them.  I'm not in the lab at the moment, but I will be tomorrow morning.

[Driley13]

Alright here's the .llb file.  Once you open it the vi's I am using are "FileDownload.vi" and "SetLoggingStart-Stop.vi."  Please let me know if you need anything else.

[Driley13]

I figure I would also post the .vi I'm using to diagnose the problem.

[pflores]

Hello Dan,

When opening your attached VI, I noticed there were references to VI's that are included in the 841-PE drivers. Do you think this could be a cause of the issue? If this is known, and expected, could you also post this library?

Regards

[Driley13]

Here's everything I can think of that might be being used by the driver.

[Driley13]

This also is possibly used.  Honestly I don't know if that's what is causing an issue.  I don't really understand how the program is downloading data from the power meter.  It's not a consistent issue.  It just happens at random intervals, which mystifies me.  Please let me know if there's anything else you need.

Message Edited by Driley13 on 02-21-2009 11:45 AM

[Driley13]

hmmm no ideas yet?

[GregFreeman]

I used a Newport OPM at work and had issues with it timing out I believe. I can't open your VI right now b/c I don't have labview on my computer. However, could it be an issue with not having a long enough wait between a visa read and visa write in your program? I had an issue with that because when changing the wavelength it needed something like 1 second in order for the wavelength to be changed before I could read data from the device, otherwise I would get an error. This may not be an issue but I thought I would put in my 2 cents.

Message Edited by for(imstuck) on 03-02-2009 06:28 PM