Stage Movement and Spectral Acquisition Across Computers

[jols]

I have two separate computers that serve separate purposes: Comp.1: one moves an XY stage (Prior Proscan) and Comp.2: acquires spectra (Princeton Instruments spectrometer and Excelon CCD). 

The end goal is to have Comp.1 move the stage to a point and queue Comp.2 to collect the spectra. Ultimately it will raster scan an area collecting spectra point by point.

The problem I'm having is being able to have Comp.1, once finished with the movement, to properly queue Comp.2 to collect the spectra and proceed through the entire defined area. 

I've looked into data queues and producer/consumer loops to figure out how to get Comp.1 to pass along that the movement has finished and Comp.2 can acquire the spectrum and then pass to Comp.1 to move again etc. etc.

Is this a feasible process to achieve with LabView across different computers? I've only seen documentation about collecting data in one computer and then processing data on another computer.

Thanks   

[RavensFan]

You sure can.

One solution is to use network shared variables to send messages from one to another and back again.  I've successfully used network shared variables, but others on the forum have had issues and would not recommend them.  So there are some alternate solutions.

A solution is to use TCP/IP message between the two.  If you set up one as a server and the other as a client, you can send whatever messages you want back and forth.  There are examples for TCP/IP communication in the example finder under help.

There is also the STM simple messaging library.  https://www.ni.com/tutorial/53683/en/   Many people on the forums have used it and I believe they would recommend that.  There may be some other toolkits out there, but this is the one that comes to mind first and I hear the most about.