[LabVIEW Tutorials] Programming an Arduino using LINX

[Jonathan998]

I want to keep  K-Type Thermocouple max6675 arduino  connect with labview LINX how can I do this? Do you have any advice?

[DerrickB]

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@Jonathan998 wrote:

I want to keep  K-Type Thermocouple max6675 arduino  connect with labview LINX how can I do this? Do you have any advice?

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The MAX6675 is an SPI chip. With the pre-built Linx Arduino firmware you can interact with the SPI bus directly from a PC using the SPI peripheral VIs. A better approach would be to write custom firmware for the Arduino and you could use the Linx serial VIs or the regular LabVIEW VISA VIs to communicate and read the values from the custom Arduino firmware you write.

[SINC]

The first thing I would do is review the datasheet and wire it up to get it working through the Arduino IDE.

You can always google for examples if you don't know how to develop them from scratch it saves heaps of time! 🙂

Once you have a working example, you're pretty much done hardware wise, as you have allocated pins and finalized your power connections.

You then have to bring the Arduino example into LabVIEW.

LINX has an SPI Pallet and examples that you can find in the "Find Examples" option...

You just have to tinker from there and get it working.

[DrNeon]

I'm trying to get the LINX ESP8266 firmware going as per the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=Ei2Fw7WPcLQ ).  I've downloaded the LINX-dev-esp8266-cfg-2.1 ZIP file, installed LINX and LabVIEW 2020, copied the source folder extracted from the ZIP file to overwrite the one in the LabVIEW MakerHub directory (vi.lib\MakerHub\LINX\Firmware\Source), and am trying to generate the firmware as instructed by the video (using Tools\MakerHub\Firmware\LINX\LINX Firmware Wizard\Settings\Generate and the Arduino libraries folder as a destination, though I've tried several other destination folders, include a temporary folder on the desktop, as well).  A dialog box that says "Done" comes up, but no files are placed in the destination folder.  Seems to be similar to the problem described by https://www.labviewmakerhub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=490256  .  Any idea what might be broken and what I can do to fix it?  Would really like to be able to use LabVIEW with an ESP8266 (or ESP32) for a course, but need a very straightforward setup protocol to provide to remote students.

[DrNeon]

I should also mention that I'm interested in having LabVIEW interact with the ESP8266 (NodeMCU) over USB, not WiFi.  Since the goal of this is to provide students with inexpensive hardware that LabVIEW can interact with, I don't really want to deal with any extra complexity caused by WiFI communication (i.e. getting the device on whatever network the student happens to be near).

[Genosphere]

These videos are great! TReally helped me play around and leanr some more about labVIEW. I was wondering, are there any simple ways to build a GUI for a TFT / colored lcd screen? More specifically a one with touch capabilities? 

I have seen there is this "Amulet" version on NI's site and found some small one~4" or so, but they are just the screen. Been searching for a while and cant find anything conclusive yet.

[SINC]

This is one of my future projects - so once I work it out i'll let you know! 

[Hayoung_7124]

Hello 🙂

 I have a question.

When I did the Linx firmware wizard to use Linx in Labview, Labview vi works well.

But it doesn't work when I quit vi and run it again.

It works if I do the Firmware Wizard again.

Do I have to do the Firmware Wizard every time?

Is it impossible to keep it working just once?

Please help me.

Thank you

[DerrickB]

Heya Hayoung! What device are you using and what kind of functionality are you using with it? If you can attach a copy of the VI you're running (or at least a screenshot of the block diagram) it would give us more specific things to look at.

[SINC]

You should only have to load the firmware once to the target to have it working in LabVIEW.

When you say quit, do you mean using the STOP button or ABORT button? 

Because what you're describing has only happened to me, if I improperly close the VI by using the abort button or it crashing. This happens of course, as your VI is not properly closing the references to whatever you initialised/opened in your VI (such as your target..), so you won't be able to run the VI again straight after, because the references are tied up already.

One way to brute force this is as you mentioned, redeploy the firmware or unplug the target from your usb port and plug it back in a couple of times. 

But it may be easier to say if you upload your VI 🙂