dimetix laser communications

[rimfire44]

Hi,

Does anyone out there have experience with talking to a Dimetix Laser Sensor using LabVIEW over RS232?  There manual is pretty fuzzy and they have no exampl vi's as far as I can tell.

Thanks,

Dave

[Izzzzz]

Hello Dave,

Could you share the name (DLS-B Sensor, DISTO Pro 4, etc) of the exact sensor you are using so I could check the manual, or post the manual on here?

Thanks,

Izzy O.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments 

[PeterKazimir]

We just recently bought a Dimetix DLS-C type sensor, description attached. Could anyone please let me know, if there are some VIs to work with this through LabVIEW (2012)?

[johnsold]

Did you check the Instrument Drivers list to see if there is anything there?  Did you ask the manufacturer if the have a LV driver?

The manual seems to have a comprehensive list of commands. To use the RS-232 or RS-422 interface it should not be too difficult to write your own driver using VISA serial. There are quite a few commands so a full implementation might be time consuming and tedious. The most difficult part of driver development is understanding how the instrument operates and how the commands may interact with each other.

Lynn

[Dennis_Knutson]

The basic or advanced serial examples are one place to start. The document you provided seems to have sufficient detail in explaining the commands, physical connection, com parameters, and termination characters. I would recommend that you do some basic debug with MAX or terminal emulation program such as hyperterminal, putty, etc.

[rimfire44]

Hi Peter,

The attached zip file has everything I worked out for the FLS-10. It might be useful to you. I've moved up to 2013 but I think this is all in 2012.

Dave

[Baptiste.S]

Hi guys, Hi Dave !

I am working with a DIMETIX laser (FLS-10) and a thermal camera (FLIR A615). We use the laser to get the distance to focus the camera (the autofocus is not good enough for our application) .

I have tested your VIs for the laser and they work well ! I would like to use it in my VI to get the distance from the laser, and send it to the camera.
You can see attached my VI.

I tried making your VI as a subVI, but it didn't work.

So for now I enter with the keybord the distance, and then a Python Script is called to proceed to the focus, and the camera acquires images.
The goal is that the laser sends the distance (instead of me typing the distance^^).

Thanks for your help !

Baptsite

[Dennis_Knutson]

You have nothing in that image related to serial communication. Simply saying 'it didn't work' is not enough.

[rimfire44]

I am not quite sure what you mean by sending the measurement.   You would have to modify my vi so that it runs automatically to make a measurement instead of waiting for interaction from the front panel. All of the parts are there to do that but you will have to steal them from the backpanel and reassemble as necessary.  Take the Start Reading code out of the while loop in the event structure and put it in a subvi that runs the measurement once and moves on.

[Baptiste.S]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your answer. Here is more information :

The camera is moving to take multiple pictures to create a "panorama" of thermal images. After every move, the camera has to re-focus, so the laser makes a measurement and tells the distance to the camera. This is what I meant with "send the distance to the camera" (sorry for the mistakes, I am french actually, just started working in California recently).

I've tried what you told me. The VI in itself works. But when I link it to my VI for image acquisition, I have no errors, but the laser doesn't send any distance and the camera doesn't show any images.

this is the subVI from your code. I think I still need the loop because I need to update the distance to focus the camera when moving, and if I remove the loop for the reading, I get an error in VISA read.

And this is the VI of the camera acquisition:

I think the problem comes from a loop or a timer, but I can't figure out where.

Thanks !

Baptiste