acton serial

[juanni]

I'm trying to control a very old acton monochromator via a spectradrive module over serial port.  I can control it with their software, and I can control it fine with hyperterminal, but for some reason, I can't get it to work with VISA in MAX.  Any suggestions (I have it set to 8-N-1 as the manual specifies, although the manual also specs 1 start bit, which I don't see an option for in MAX)?  Aargh. Thanks

[RavensFan]

I believe Start bit is always 1 bit.  I can't remember the last time I had seen Start bits mentioned a serial specification before.

Are you getting any errors such as timeout errors?  If so, post the error code numbers.

Do you need to append a carriage return or linefeed to your query?

Are you sure the baud rate is set correctly?

[juanni]

It is an old monochromator.  We have 2 more like it (but GPIB controlled), but I cannot pry them out of my coworkers hands.  All of the example programs in the manual are written for GPIB (and not in Labview).  How do you append a carraige return or linefeed in MAX (or in a VI for that matter?).  I set the baud to the specified 9600.  J

[juanni]

I think I found my problem.  Somehow, I had the wrong flow control selected... Thanks.  J

[RavensFan]

I forgot about flow control.  It seems like most modern hardware doesn't require it.  But I guess that "very old" hardware did.  Glad to hear you got it working.

[jackofalltradesmasterofnone]

i'm working on a rather primitive acton-research monochromator as well. Maybe we can share our knowledge on it

[juanni]

Sure... we can kkep using this thread if you'd like.  I'm having a bit of luck now, but my program isn't super robust.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  What model monochromator are you using?  J

[jackofalltradesmasterofnone]

SP-150.....hopefully we have the same model

[juanni]

I'm using a spectradrive external controller to run a spectrapro 500.  I'm sure that the communication is similar, though.  J

[chocolate]

hi, I have the same spectrapro 500 and tend, to connet it as Juanni had made with the RS232 port . As noticed in the usual manual I used the cables and connection. The main problem is that I can’t receive any data from the device. In order to communicate with, I use the Visa without any success.

Do you have any idea on the origin of my problems.