Rescieving data from pin pad

[sandstorm]

Hi

I have a 16 key pin pad and have all the required driver files, libraries for the key pad to be recognised by the computer by USB. Now I want to rescieve the keys pressed on the keypad as number in labview, and compare them to a predefined set of numbers from a text file.

My question:

How do I make a sub VI viz which i can rescieve all the data from the pin pad wrt the buttons pressed. I am not very familiar with the CIN and the call library function nodes. Please help me out here

Kind Regards

sandi

[MarkLee]

Hi Sandi,

When you say you have the libraries for the USB keypad - do you have a DLL supplied and installed on your PC to control it?

If you have a DLL and an associated .h header file (and are running LabVIEW 8.5) - there is a wizard under the tools menu that will take those 2 files and create a set of 'wrapper' VIs which expose each of the functions in that DLL for you to use. Go to Tools - Import - Shared library (.dll) and follow the wizard steps.

You then need to look at the documentation for the DLL, figure out what each of the functions does and call the sub-VIs to achieve the right function.

If you don't have LabVIEW 8.5, you need to do this wrapping by hand, there is an old document which goes through this process step by step here:

http://digital.ni.com/manuals.nsf/websearch/8D930295FFBF9F7686256D2C00624728

You do need to look very carefully at the documentation for your DLL to make sure you set all the options right - it's easy to make a mistake. This document also goes through how to use CINs - it's quite tricky to use CINs so wherever possible I'd try and get hold of the DLL.

Hope this helps a bit! Good Luck,

Mark

[cmpowell]

I you've installed the keypad, and it's functioning as a keyboard wedge (i.e. you can use it to input text into an application as well as the keyboard), then I would use the Input Device Control vi's. 

Initialize keyboard.vi,  pass the device id to Acq Input data.vi, read the data, and then Close Input Device.vi

[cmpowell]

I've attached a screenshot of what I described above.

[sandstorm]

hi guys

thanks for the advice. It was quick and efficient. thanks cmpowell .

Kind regards

sandi