Lynxmotion SSC-32U through Labview

[spatan2]

Hello

I have the AL5D arm kit I want to control the arm with Labview. It has the SSC-32U microcontroller
1 - Is it possible to interface the microcontroller with LabVIEW  VISA (without the LabVIEW robotics module)?
2 - If no then what is the next best way to go about it.
3 - Would Arduino with LIFA work?
I have the NI USB 6009 - would I need something higher/different? Or would it not matter?

Regards,
spatan

[bahannah · Accepted solution]

Hello spatan2,

It depends on how your arm kit and controller interface with a computer as there are many ways to communicate between National Instruments hardware and software and third party instrumentation.

1. You can interface with LabVIEW VISA if your microcontroller accepts VISA commands. We have a wonderful Serial Instrument Tutorial located on our website to introduce serial instrument control. In this case, you would not use NI hardware, but would wire your device directly into a comport on the computer.
2. This depends on how the microcontroller and arm kit accept commands. If they accept serial commands, you can use VISA. If it is controlled with a digital pulse signal, you may be able to send one with LabVIEW on your USB-6009. It depends on the specifications that your pulse needs to meet. An example of controlling a motor with pulse width modulation is shown here. 
3. Our LIFA software has limited support on the rest of our forums. Questions related to LIFA should be posted to the LIFA Forums as these forums are used by our LabVIEW Interface for Arduino community and monitored by NI employees who work more closely with Arduino.

I tried to see if we had any existing documentation on using LabVIEW with your Robotic Arm, and I found an existing forum post about a similar question. This forum may answer some of your questions on using the arm robot with LabVIEW.

There was also a similar question asked on the RobotShop forums, and it looks like you can communicate with the servo using serial communication through VISA commands in LabVIEW.

Regards,

Hannah

Applications Engineering

National Instruments

www.ni.com/support

[spatan2]

Hello Hannah, 

I did look at the link - But this was asking me to upgrade. 
The Arduino forum on LabVIEW was quite helpful and so was the RobotShop link. 
Thanks for the VISA clarification. Will get back with more questions once things are set up. 
Spatan2. 

[spatan2]

Hannah,

Just an update - I did end up using Arduino with labVIEW, and was able to move the servo - However, the LIFA apparently is archived. Its LINX now. 

Thanks,

Spatan2