hounsfield/serial/labview

[pjsaczek]

Hi,

I'm new to labview/testing/labwork, and would be grateful if anyone could give me some clues on how to do my task.

I'm making a VI that is used when using a hounsfield tension testing machine. the Vi needs a few Analog input channels including one to measure the force, and one to measure the distance moved etc.

I was just wondering if it would be possible to connect the testing machine to a comuter to comunicate through the serial line, i.e control the motor in the machine, and take data collected by the machines computer (the data is usualy sent straight to a printer).

appologies if this doesn't make much sense!

cheers,

pete

[Anders Björk]

QUOTE(pjsaczek @ Aug 23 2007, 04:30 PM)

Hi,

I'm new to labview/testing/labwork, and would be grateful if anyone could give me some clues on how to do my task.

I'm making a VI that is used when using a hounsfield tension testing machine. the Vi needs a few Analog input channels including one to measure the force, and one to measure the distance moved etc.

I was just wondering if it would be possible to connect the testing machine to a comuter to comunicate through the serial line, i.e control the motor in the machine, and take data collected by the machines computer (the data is usualy sent straight to a printer).

appologies if this doesn't make much sense!

cheers,

pete

Has the unit already a serial interface? Otherwise you need some hardware for acquireing and sending signals to the unit. The printer your talking about is it a plotter or is it a printer writing numbers? If it is the later you might been able to catch the control codes and the information, but you will need some extra electronics for that. Then after capturing the information from a serial port you could use string function screen out your numbers.