Need an Instrument Drive for Elmo motion control products.

[JMJ]

Hello,

I am going to use a Bassoon servo drive from Elmo Motion Control to control a voice coil.  I  haven't found an Instrument Driver for Elmo through my LavVIEW program or on their website.  Does an Instrument Drive for Elmo products exist? 

Thank You!

[O_Proulx]

Hello JMJ,

There is no driver for this instrument on our instrument driver page.  I think you may have to develop a driver yourself.  A good starting point is the serial read and write example.  You can also look at the command reference manual for your instrument.  I took a quick look and it seems like you will have to send commands like:

AB[1] = 1\n

This would change the absolute position resolution per analog signal cycle to 1 (page  3-4 of the manual).  You can make sub VIs that implement each function that you need. 

You can also look at this link if you want to make a full driver and submit it to idnet.

Let me know if this helps.  Have a great day.

[JMJ]

Thanks for the feedback,

I do have some more questions:

1.  Is it possible for me to communicate with the Basic Serial Read and Write example and not develop an Instrument Drive?  I see that the write VISA VI takes a string and converts it and sends it to the control card and the read VI receives a signal and converts it.  Is the conversion converting from the Elmo language to the ASCII code?  If I don't write an Instrument Drive will I have limited capabilities?

2.  I was informed that there is an Instrument I/O Wizard that would potentially be easier to use and program than an Instrument Drive.  What is your opinion on such matter?  Could I use either or neither?

3.  If I develope an Instrument Drive are all the seperate commands seperate subVIs?    

I have looked over the example and read many tutorials however I am still confused.  I also posted another message and after reading those responses I thought I understood what was going on but now I am unsure.  I have no controlling experience and have no assistance other than the tutorials and textbooks so I appreciate the help.

Thanks

[O_Proulx]

Hello JMJ,

Here are my answers to your questions:

1.  Is it possible for me to communicate with the Basic Serial Read and Write example and not develop an Instrument Drive?  I see that the write VISA VI takes a string and converts it and sends it to the control card and the read VI receives a signal and converts it.  Is the conversion converting from the Elmo language to the ASCII code?  If I don't write an Instrument Drive will I have limited capabilities?

You could use the serial example to write your entire program.  If you only need a handfull of commands, then this is probably the most straighforward for you to get going.  Everytime you use the VISA Write, the ascii values are written on the serial lines and transmitted to your device.  Your device reads and interprets these commands and acts depending on what the command is.  Some command may change a setting in the instrument.  Some other command may actually ask for the instrument to write back some data.  In this case, you need to have a VISA Read after the write to be able to read the data into your computer.

2.  I was informed that there is an Instrument I/O Wizard that would potentially be easier to use and program than an Instrument Drive.  What is your opinion on such matter?  Could I use either or neither?

You can definitely use the Instrument I/O Wizard to help you .  This wizard really helps in parsing the data  received from your instrument.  You can look this tutorial if you want to learn more about  it.   You could use either one.  I suggest you try both these methods and see which one seems more obvious to you. 

3.  If I develope an Instrument Drive are all the seperate commands seperate subVIs?    

A LabVIEW instrument driver usually has a set of VIs with specific functionality.  For example, you will have one subVI that will initializes the instrument.  This subVI may send 1 to 5 (or more) commands, depending on what you need to initialize your instrument.  You can then have one VI that set's an attritube.  This one would only require sending one command.   You can look at this tutorial for developping a complete instrument driver.  However, keep in mind that this may not me necessary for your application.

I suggest you first look at what functionality you need.  Then take a look at what commands this will require.  You will then be able to plan out your program a little better.  I also suggest you post all this information on the forum, so that we may be able to help you with more specific details.

Have a great day.