How do I find the ports a pre existing program used in DAQ?

[mccutchen12c]

Hi all, 

I am setting up a laser displacement sensor and trying to utilize a pre existing program that was created by graduate students before me. There are 4 wires coming from the laser displacement sensor that need to be connected to the DAQ but we have no information telling us where these wires are supposed to attach to the DAQ in order to run the pre existing program correctly. 

Is there any way that we could figure this out? 

Thank you for your help,

mccutchen12c

[James.M]

You're probably best off posting the bode here for us to look at.

The only way that information is in the code is if it was hard-coded, the initial values were saved as default, or you have a configuration file. Judging by the knowledge that it was made by grad students, I'm scared.

Also, if the information isn't there you can tell us what the wires are for any what device you're using and we could probably tell you how to wire those 4.

[JÞB]

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@mccutchen12c wrote:

Hi all, 

I am setting up a laser displacement sensor and trying to utilize a pre existing program that was created by graduate students before me. There are 4 wires coming from the laser displacement sensor that need to be connected to the DAQ but we have no information telling us where these wires are supposed to attach to the DAQ in order to run the pre existing program correctly. 

Is there any way that we could figure this out? 

Thank you for your help,

mccutchen12c

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I'm assuming that those prior Grad students did NOT leave the program after achieveing a higher degree.  DO NOT make that mistake yourself- Document your experiments!

If you supply the code and a model numer for the displacement sensor,  we can likely reverse engineer the lines from the manual and code.

[mccutchen12c]

James, 

Thank you for your help! Yes, we have looked at a couple different methods on how to tell if the information had been programmed by the previous grad students and we haven't had any success in finding that information. So I believe you are right in assuming its not documented.. We will do a better job of documenting for future grad students after us. 

I have attached our code. Any insight you could give would be greatly appreciated!

We have an Acuity AR200-6 laser displacement sensor with green, yellow, black and a wire that isn't wrapped that all lead to the serial port in the back of the computer and ground. We then have white, blue, orange and brown wires that do not have a location.. We did some research and the are as follows:

white: laser disable

blue: buttons disable

orange: voltage output

brown: voltage RTN

We are starting to wonder if we are just not supposed to use the DAQ.. Can you confirm the connection is solely through a serial port? 

Cheers, 

Carley

[mccutchen12c]

Hi Jeff, 

I have supplied the model number and code in my previous reply to James and I would greatly appreciate your input as well. 

Thanks again for taking the time to help us out!

Cheers, 

Carley 

[Omar_II]

This is just a terminal program to send and receive text to and from some serial communication device.

A LabVIEW version of Tera Term.

Where is the DAQ?