Hardware necessary for project

[Bulletman]

Dear All,

My name is Dennis aka "bulletman". I'm a chemical engineer and at this moment

I have an experimental setup that I would like to control with Labview. At this moment

everything is done manually. The setup contains the following things:

3x Balances RS232

6x Mass Flow Controller, RS232

1x Mass Flow Reader, RS232

3x Temperature Control, RS232

2x ISCO pumps, RS232

2x Characterization machines, RS232

One week ago, I started to be interested in using labview and I did some online tutorials and played around in the programm itself.

I think the program itself is not that hard to use, but I don't have any experiences with data acquisition so far. At this moment I'm not

sure which kind of hardware I need for my purpose. If I understand correctly, I need a DAQ card which is connected to a box with multiple

RS232 connections. By addressing the cards com port and the respective channel (every channel is anothere RS232 port?) it becomes possible

to read/control the experiment? Please help me out!

Next, Do you guys think it is duable (for an in-experienced person like me) to write a labview program that is able to control/read the MFC's, TC's, pumps etc.

Thanks,

Dennis

[jgcode]

QUOTE (Bulletman @ Nov 25 2008, 09:48 PM)

At this moment I'm not sure which kind of hardware I need for my purpose.

Here's a http://www.ni.com/serial/' target="_blank">start for NI serial hardware

Which ever hardware platform you choose, from your current spec you will need at least serial 17 ports.

Cheers

JG

[Francois Normandin]

Hi Dennis,

it's totally doable. It's in fact much easier than you think it could be. Installing a card to multiplex your RS-232 ports will give you as many COM ports you need. Use Measurement Automation Explorer to configure them and use Instrument I/O Assistant to get started. (Instrument I/O palette)

QUOTE (jgcode @ Nov 25 2008, 08:34 AM)

Which ever hardware platform you choose, from your current spec you will need at least serial 17 ports.

Or daisy-chaining the equipments if some are compatible with this control method.

[crelf]

I've got an even easier and ultimately cheaper way - use a "serial concentrator". They're dedicated cards that have many many ports on them, and are specifically made for what you want. They just show up as ports in MAX, and you access them in LabVIEW.

The only limitation with them is that they're expensive, but you're in luck! I have a bunch of them in my prototype lab left over from a recent project (we used 128 ports simultaneously with no issues at all), they're brand new in the box, that I can let you have for a very low price (we're not using them, so I'd prefer to see someone get some value out of them rather than just taking up room in our lab). Let me know if you're interested.

[TobyD]

We have one application where we are using 12 USB to RS232 dongles + the one on board RS232 port with no issues. You can pick the adapter dongles up for less than $15 each so that might be an option as well. The only thing we had to do is to force each adapter to a specific com port so that if it got plugged into a different USB location it would keep the same COM port number.

[Tim_S]

QUOTE (crelf @ Nov 25 2008, 10:12 AM)

I've got an even easier and ultimately cheaper way - use a "serial concentrator".

QUOTE (TobyD @ Nov 25 2008, 11:05 AM)

We have one application where we are using 12

http://sewelldirect.com/usbtoserial.asp'

rel='nofollow' target="_blank">USB to RS232 dongles

+ the one on board RS232 port with no issues.

I was going to suggest RS232 to RS485 converters to make one network, but I like some of these solutions better.

Tim

[Neville D]

The Mass Flow controllers and/or meters also might have an analog control line (either Voltage or Current) that you can read or write to with a DAQ card. Ultimately this is way faster and cleaner than querying via RS-232.

Neville

[PaulG.]

I've built applications that used up to 128 serial ports with no problem. But you will need a multiport serial device. But they are expensive. Take a look at the "serial concentrator" crelf mentioned then contact him. Good luck. :thumbup:

[LAVA 1.0 Content]

QUOTE (Bulletman @ Nov 25 2008, 01:48 PM)

Dear All,

My name is Dennis aka "bulletman". I'm a chemical engineer and at this moment

A chemical engineer called 'bulletman' oh-oh (and you're from the Netherlands, should I worry?)

I would try to get some VIs for these instruments, so you have directly all the commands you need.

Ton

[Bulletman]

Thank you for all your answer. I'm going to look into all your solution. I'm unfamiliar with most of the termination that you use and therefore it might take a while before I understand all options! Thanks for all your help!

@Ton: Don't worry....a chemical engineer addicted to the cheap energy drink "Bullit".....but bulletman sounds better