jcarmody

Name: State Machine Follower

Submitter: jcarmody

Submitted: 19 Oct 2011

File Updated: 20 Oct 2011

Category: JKI Right-Click Framework Plugins

LabVIEW Version: 2009

License Type: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

This JKI RCF Plugin sets the Visible Frame property of a Case Structure while the owning VI is running. Use it to follow the execution through the cases in your string-based State Machine/Sequencer when Execution Highlighting isn't fast enough (and, it's never fast enough).

The use-case I wrote this to improve is setting a Breakpoint on the Error wire coming out of the main Case Structure and probing the Case Selector terminal so I can float-probe wires during execution. The problem with this is that I had to manually select the current frame every time. This is boring, so I developed this plugin to automatically set the Visible Frame to the case most recently executed.

Use - Select the String wire connected to the main Case Structure's selector terminal, invoke the JKI RCF and select StateFollower.

Special thanks to - AristosQueue, for his help over here.

LabVIEW versions - tested in 2009 & 2011 - it should work in 2010 as well

Installation - use VIPM to install the VI Package

License - Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution (Really, do whatever you want. I don't care.)

Click here to download this file

Try setting the server path to whichever Python dll you have.

I can follow the wire to its source and get the value of the indicator it's wired to, but only because I happen to know the label text. I'll keep playing to see if I can identify the control by the wire's terminal. Any thoughts?

I intend to use this when troubleshooting VIs based on the JKI State Machine, so I know the wire's source.

Thanks.

How can I get the value of the data on a wire from a reference to the wire itself?

I'd like to make a plugin that will monitor a wire feeding a Case structure's case selector and automatically navigate to the case being executed. It'll make debugging easier where Execution Highlighting is too painfully slow to watch.

I use the Structured Error Handler Express VI when I want to supress specific errors. It has quite a bit of functionality. This idea on NI's Idea Exchange is similar. Hopefully, NI will add the SEH to the default pallets. Your post prompted me to submit this idea.

I got bit after copying and refactoring a project, then installing the new application on the same PC as the original. The new installer deleted the original app and the old installer would quit when I tried to reinstall it. An NI AE told me how to fix it here.

Could someone comment on what I've done? I half expect a link to this from the Rube Goldberg thread on the NI forum.

(How frequently do we shift a wire 1 pixel just to fix a bent wire?)

Too often. OCD.

I won't be surprised when someone posts an easier way to do this, but I've done it by building an array and only updating the chart when the mouse isn't down. A side-effect of the way I used the Mouse Up event is that if you release the mouse with the pointer off the chart it won't be detected and the chart won't move. If that's what you want, good. If it isn't, change the Mouse Up event source from the chart to the Pane. It sounds from your post that this is the behavior you want.

Turn off "Lock front panel..." for the Done Calibrating:value change event and this will be fixed.

Thanks, I understand that. What I don't understand is why the Event Structure locks the FP after 'Done Calibrating' has stopped the bottom loop.

Apart from the cause for the unexpected (to me) behavior, I think the solution involves using only one loop to handle FP interaction.

I'm confused by the behavior of the two boolean buttons. If I start this and hit 'Stopped? 2' the VI exits as I'd expect. If I start it and hit 'Done Calibrating' once the corresponding indicator updates and the VI will stop after hitting 'Stopped? 2'. If I start it and hit 'Done Calibrating' more than once the FP won't respond to clicks on 'Stopped? 2' and needs to be aborted. Execution highlighting shows that the bottom loop has stopped and the top loop is still spinning.

I added the Wait function because sometimes the bottom loop beat the top loop to the 'Stopped?' indicator/local.

EDIT - changing the Event Structure to not lock the Front Panel for this event fixes the issue. I expected that the Event Structure wouldn't have any more influence once it executed and the loop stopped...

Cross-posted here.

I added a link to a QD plugin that'll import an array from the clipboard.

Shift + arrow works in a table control.

This worked for me.

My Abort.vi does some of what you mention:

Are there any existing task managers specific to LabVIEW? I am looking for a task manager that is capable of:

• Listing running VIs along with memory usage and refnum not sure how difficult this would be to add
  
• Aborting a running VI
  
• Showing or hiding a block diagram or front panel this feels like it might be easy
  

I have searched on google and the NI forums with no luck.

The looking I did has me thinking that it is similar to an interface, or a wrapper around an interface.

Seen here.

Can someone point me to a LabVIEW example of this OOP design? I am learning OOP in LabVIEW and my task is to create an example program using the facade design pattern. I can't find an example to study.

This is something I'm interested in as well...

I thought it was here:

https://decibel.ni.c.../8293?tstart=30

Doh!

I do this:

... to clean up the wire in a JKI RCF plugin that inserts this:

This assumes that the wire is the shape I want it to be and I can simply move the whole thing.

edit - I got help doing this here.

I, too, like the JKI State Machine. This isn't the largest program I've written, but it's what I'm releasing now. LVOOP, as drdjpowell mentioned, goes a long way toward making your Block Diagram more manageable.

I've been putting round corners on wires since this plugin was released. Thanks vugie

[...] the cost for a battery is about $3,700 - about the same as a major transmission repair.

I'm not as interested in the cost of a new battery as I am in the disposal (expense & GREEN impact ) of the old one.