Necronic Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Howdy I was able to score some third party labview drivers for a mass flow controller I am working with (MKS type 146C). Of course I know nothing about labview, and there were no instuctions on what to do with this massive bundle of VIs, so I am stuck. I know I will need a hire a contractor at this point, so my question is this: Without any instuctions or literature about the drivers, can they really be used without having to go through them piece by piece? My programming experience tells me that a program with no literature/commentary is a real ###### to figure out at first. Are there standards when it comes to building labview drivers or what? I can't afford to hire a contractor for very long. From what I can tell the program I need is pretty simple once you get communication with the hardware down. I just don't know how hard that will be. Also, I already checked the NI database for drivers, there weren't any. MKS only had 1 product with supported drivers. Awesome support :headbang: Anyways, any advice on the useability of drivers without literature would be helpful, and pleaase keep in mind, I know almost nothing about labview, so if my post made no sense please excuse me. Quote Link to comment
crelf Posted August 24, 2006 Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 Ouch! Looks like you're in a real bind. To try to answer you questions, there are a number of standard dirver models used in LabVIEW, and there are even more non-standard models, so without seeing the code, I'm really at a loos to be able to help out. The other big problem is that you're not a LabVIEW programmer - it's like giving a handful of phrases written in Italian to someone who has never spoken Italian before and expecting them to be able to carry on a conversation - it's not impossible, but it's much easier to hire a translator Maybe you could upload the drivers with a description of what you're trying to do - depending on the driver's state and the extent of your requirements, we might be able to help you further... Quote Link to comment
Necronic Posted August 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2006 I'll upload 2 of the 5 packets I was sent, as the total size of the 5 is like 15 meg or so. The other issue (which I forgot to mention) is that we are using Labview 7.0 express base. I don't even know if these are compatable. I appreciate the help. Download File:post-5939-1156456855.llb Download File:post-5939-1156456891.vi Quote Link to comment
PJM_labview Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 I'll upload 2 of the 5 packets I was sent, as the total size of the 5 is like 15 meg or so.The other issue (which I forgot to mention) is that we are using Labview 7.0 express base. I don't even know if these are compatable. I appreciate the help. Download File:post-5939-1156456855.llb Download File:post-5939-1156456891.vi Here are a few comments and answer.The mks.llb file is missing The VI appears to have been made under LV 5.0 (so you will be ok in LV 7.0 base) The VI call 146chart.vi appears to be an example of how to communicate with your instrument (this is the good news). The not so good news is that the code quality is poor. Finding out what's going on in this VI will not be too easy for a begginner. Hope it help. PJM Quote Link to comment
David Boyd Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 I'll upload 2 of the 5 packets I was sent, as the total size of the 5 is like 15 meg or so. Aaack, ptui! I agree with Philippe - I just took a peek at the BD of the 146chart.vi, without all its support subVIs, and it's hideous. Too bad you're not using the MKS 179A/1179A massflow controllers - I have a classic, pure-G set of VIs for controlling the serial RS-485 version of this series. Wrote 'em myself in, 5.1, I think, and I keep reusing them over and over. You'll definitely be looking for outside help if you're on a deadline. Probably anyone you contract with will need to code at least a minimal set of VIs for controlling the 146. Properly planned, they'll be easily expanded and form a great reuse library. Sorry I can't offer anything up on this device. Dave Quote Link to comment
crelf Posted August 25, 2006 Report Share Posted August 25, 2006 Crikey! I agree with Philippe and Dave - you gotta get someone in to help you out on those - they're a mess, and you'll spend more time trying to sort them out than it's worth. You can use some of the prototypes in the existing driver, but I'd be talking to someone to help you with a brand new driver... Quote Link to comment
Necronic Posted November 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 Crikey! I agree with Philippe and Dave - you gotta get someone in to help you out on those - they're a mess, and you'll spend more time trying to sort them out than it's worth. You can use some of the prototypes in the existing driver, but I'd be talking to someone to help you with a brand new driver... I have had a number of requests for the rest of this library. I was telling people to go to MKS because they still had them, or so I thought. MKS seems to have 'lost' them. I love their hardware, but.....anyways. So I am gonna upload the other three parts in the off chance that one of the people hunting this stuff will untangle these terrible VIs for me. C'mon yall, get me that promotion I haven't been working for Download File:post-5939-1164081439.zip Download File:post-5939-1164081514.llb Download File:post-5939-1164081662.llb Quote Link to comment
crelf Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 So I am gonna upload the other three parts in the off chance that one of the people hunting this stuff will untangle these terrible VIs for me. C'mon yall, get me that promotion I haven't been working for I sitll think the problem of the crap code will stall a beginner, and be too comprehensive to expect an advanced user to do it for you for free. Quote Link to comment
Dan Bookwalter Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 I sitll think the problem of the crap code will stall a beginner, and be too comprehensive to expect an advanced user to do it for you for free. I just opned this mess up and the very first thing i said was Holy Crap (actually it wasnt crap i said ) i wouldnt even want to try to take that apart , let alone have a beginner try it..... Quote Link to comment
Grampa_of_Oliva_n_Eden Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 I had to take a look after reading the others reaction. I got as far as "frame 0" spotted a race condition! So do you think the delay was a workaround for the race condition? I hope we never find out! The lower level VI may be good for harvesting syntax (I did not look). Ben Quote Link to comment
crelf Posted November 21, 2006 Report Share Posted November 21, 2006 I just opned this mess up and the very first thing i said was Holy Crap (actually it wasnt crap i said ) i wouldnt even want to try to take that apart , let alone have a beginner try it..... Yeah - and fixing full dirver sets is not really what LAVA is about. We can help with portions of it, but what you're really asking for is for a professional contracting house to completely rewrite the drivers from the ground up for you. I got as far as "frame 0" spotted a race condition! :laugh: Quote Link to comment
Necronic Posted December 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 Yeah - and fixing full dirver sets is not really what LAVA is about. We can help with portions of it, but what you're really asking for is for a professional contracting house to completely rewrite the drivers from the ground up for you. :laugh: Honestly that's what I expected. People make a good living off of being able to code in Labview, and if I was one of them I wouldn't do my job for free, and not being one I don't expect it, so of course I am very appreciative and somewhat surprised as to how much help I have gotten so far. I had time to screw around with this some more recently and found out that there actually is a full VI in here, which I somehow missed the first time around, but I seem to be having an error when trying to run it. I am missing a subVI called DNL_SendDeviceExplicit associated with a library DNLAB32 (I think its a library, although I am not sure). I can't tell if this is something local to this program or something intrinsic in LabView. Since I have 7.0 Express I am missing a lot of intrinsic VIs. I googled the terms and got nothing so I am thinking it is something local to the program. Either way, back to the JAVA drawing board. That's its own set of headaches as I can't seem to find a good forum for the API I need to work with. Yet again: So long, and thanks for all the fish Quote Link to comment
crelf Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 So long, and thanks for all the fish Mmmmmmmmm fish..... Have you tried a "SendDeviceExplicit" and/or "DNLAB32" google? Quote Link to comment
David Boyd Posted December 4, 2006 Report Share Posted December 4, 2006 I had time to screw around with this some more recently and found out that there actually is a full VI in here, which I somehow missed the first time around, but I seem to be having an error when trying to run it.We PM'd back and forth a few times about this way back when you first posted. The 146C is a controller device for the MFCs. Are you sure you don't have access to the MFCs directly? Can you reply with any of the part numbers for the MFCs?Was this supposed to be a simple control project you intended to implement in LV, or is this part of some much larger system? Still curious... Dave Quote Link to comment
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