what is .Net and Task ID...?

[arm_labview]

Hey, I am very new to Labview and have been working with a version previously installed in one of our systems for 3 days now. Previous users wrote a program that communicates well with a stage that moves in X and Y plus does all other fancy stuff. I created a VI at the moment that is able to move stage in X and Y direction. My code runs fine and I can see stage moving in correct coordinates, however, I don't understand exactly what some parts of the block diagram does.

I've attached the basic .vi ,

what I want to know what exactly Control In and Control Out do, (that contains .NET which I don't understand.) Why Control In has to be wired to case in stead of directly to the Execute Command..

Also, there is a task ID that goes to Enable Commands, I understand that if I put 1 and 2 numeric values it basically tells the machine which direction to move first but I notices some users also have in a different form (instead of numeric values) which is in .Net form. Again I am wondering what exactly .Net File do.

Also as you see in the code there is a format into string, I copied that command line (DWELL 1; Linear.....) from a similar code, I think it is G-Code command. I believe that this is how machine knows what speed to obtain and which position. If so where do I get more information to learn about similar G-code commands. Thanks a lot 🙂

[tyk007]

The VI that you posted references not only other VIs but also some .NET assemblies, so unfortunately I cannot open it completely. But from what I can see I can give you the following feedback:

1. The .NET class in use is the Aerotech.A3200.Controller class. Presumably it is a .NET class that handles communicating with the stage you are describing.
2. I can't tell why the .NET reference is needed for the ExecuteCommand VI since you didn't include this VI in your attachments. But I would assume that the VI needs to call some method on the .NET object that has been passed in. I can see that the .NET reference in control is not used; this may be a left-over from the previous developer who was going to make this VI more generic but never got there; instead the .NET object reference is created in the VI instead through the missing "Connect.vi"
3. The G-ode command you are referring to is just a string (not some sort of special command). As you describe, it seems that the content of the string specifies how to execute the command. What the contents of the string need to be is specific to the stage you are using; consult the stage documentation for details on this.

Your other comments are a bit specific to the actual implementation of the missing .NET assembly. If you can provide the missing VIs and that assembly than I might be able to help you better understand how it works and how you might be able to leverage it further.

I would also recommend going through some of NI's free LabVIEW training courses they have online which might help you understand some of the basic LabVIEW concepts better.

[RavensFan]

You should probably talk to the previous users who wrote the program to learn more about how they wrote the .NET parts.  No one hear will be able to help since we don't know anything about your device that uses the .Net commands.

You don't have Controller In wired to a "case".  You have it connected to a flat sequence structure.  That just doesn't look write to me and it doesn't make sense that it is not used.  Controller out comes from some subVI's (not included) but the wiring passing into them is coming from other subVI's.  Usually reference wires like the .net controller wire pass through subVI's so that they can be used inside and come back out to be used by the next subVI.

There really is no reason for the flat sequence structure at all.

Do you have the manual for this XY stage you can read to see how to programmatically control it?