How to make a hold a preselected value and direction of a translational stage steps and release/move the stage after pressing a 'button.

[ssujann1]

Hello,

Could you please guide me to solve this problem?

I need to modify the program (attached) such a way, that I will select the direction (i.e.. Forward /backward) and step-size of a translational stage at the beginning.

The translational stage will wait/hold and there should a blinking light to indicate its holding condition. 

The translational stage will only move backward/Forward direction to the above selected value when I press a new button (?????????) say, a ‘Release’ Button.

Any suggestion. 

Best regards,

Mohammad.

[Matt_McLaughlin]

Hello Mohammad,

Perhaps I am oversimplifying the problem, but I believe this functionality could be acieved with a single Case Structure or Event Structure. The step and direction parameters could be set at the onset of the program (or at the beginning of every loop iteration) and the functions to actually move the the translational stage would be placed inside the true case of a Case Structure. A boolean button for 'Release' would then be wired to the input of the case structure cause the movement to only execute when the button has been pressed.

Another option would be to use an event structure. The event would be a change in value of the 'Release' button. If you have not used it before, you may want to look into the event structure and event-driven programming in LabVIEW.

Causing an LED to blink on the front panel is relatively simple. Just place an LED indicator on the front panel and right-click it and create a Property Node to control the blinking (Create»Property Node»Blinking). This Property Node will allow you to control whether the LED is blinking or not pregrammatically.

I hope that helps! Let me know if I've oversimplified you question or any of the information above needs to be better explained.