VISA error -1073807360 with Newport ESP301

[sman15]

Hi everyone,

We have a rotary stage (Newport RV240PP) stage controlled by a motion controller (Newport ESP 301) using Labview.  We are using the stage for tomography application. For example, the stage is programmed to rotate from 0 to 360 degree in small step size increments of ~.12 degree for a total of 3001 (pausing for predetermined amount of time between each step for image capture). 

OS:  Windows XP Professional, Version 2002, Service Pack 3
Labview: 2013 Service Pack 1, Version: 13.0.1f2 (32-bit)

NI-VISA 14.0

When attempting to run the VI to operate,  we have been receiving errors related to VISA write and read command.  The error occurs randomly, for example for the first run the stage may complete 400 steps (out of programmed 3001) before producing error and the second run may complete 2400 steps out of programmed 3001 before producing error.

The read and write command subVI is shown below:

The initialization of the controller is shown below:

A detailed view of the ESP301 Initialize subVI is shown below:

We have also attached the I/O trace around the time the error occurs; the trace starts from around two steps before the following error occurs:

648340.  VISA Read ("ASRL3::INSTR", 100)
Process ID: 0x000005DC         Thread ID: 0x00000ABC
Start Time: 23:22:47.906       Call Duration 00:00:01.531
Status: 0xBFFF0000 (VI_ERROR_SYSTEM_ERROR)

We have also attached the I/O trace file along with this post. The error line can be reached by searching for VI_ERROR_SYSTEM_ERROR.

We have scanned the forums and implemented some of the suggestion as increasing the buffersize (shown in ESP301 Initialize subVI, third snippet) and including time delay between read and write (shown in read and write subVI, first snippet). One of the answers in this post (http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Serial-communication-error-1073807360-What-caused-it/td-p/785591) suggests it could be a general problem associated with USB cables. 

Newport recommends 921600 baud, 8 data bits, N parity, and 1 stop bit for USB interface to ESP301.

Wondering if anyone knows what is causing this error and how to fix it. 

[nikale]

Hi sman15,

Thanks for all the information! So I wanted to confirm, are you using USB to Serial adapters?

- Kale

[sman15]

Hi Kale,

Thanks for your reply! We are using USB to USB connection from Newport ESP 301 motion controller to PC  but no adaptors. Additionally, we are using

25-pin D-Sub to 25-pin D-Sub connection from rotary stage to "Axis 1" connection on back of motion controller.

[LucG]

Hi.

sman15, did you find any solution...? I am having the same error as you (-1073807360) right at the beginning, when trying to create the VISA port.

For information, I am also controlling a ESP301 with only the USB cable. No RS232 adaptor.

The weird thing is that I can control the ESP301 with Matlab and it works fine. But when I try to do it with Labview, I get the error. (And before anyone asks: I am not using Matalb and Labview at the same time. Each software is completely closed when the other one is running. So there is no problem of a resource being reserved by one of the softwares.)  So I guess it is not a problem of physical connection...

Does any one have a clue?

Regards.

Luc

[LucG]

Hello again!

Juts a quick update...

I ran a complementary test. I tried to control the ESP301 with an RS232 connection (again, pure RS232 connection. No USB to RS232 adaptor). And it works. So the computer and the ESP301 can communicate when using Labview. The problem seems to be only when using USB connection.

I hope that information could help anyone to have ideas. Maybe a miss-configuration somewhere... I'll keep looking. Let me know if anyone has an idea.

Regards.

[sman15]

Hi Luc!

Thanks for responding and the tip to use RS232 connection. We were able to solve issue essentially introducing time delay and increasing timeout
error in Labview code. It's good to know multiple solutions exist for this issue.

Cheers.