LABPRO TOOLKIT
12/28/2004

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When you download the toolkit you will find a folder called "LABPRO". This folder contains subfolders that contain subVIs and Express VIs used for communicating with the Vernier LabPro. As you become more familiar with programming LabPro, and you wish to create your own custom LabPro programs, you will need to access these subVIs and Express VIs (see below). Until then, simply place the LABPRO folder in the user.lib folder (see below) and download our LabPro example VIs. These examples demonstrate simple, working programs that use the LABPRO subVIs and Express VIs as the building blocks. Run the examples to verify communication with LabPro, to examine the code, and learn the general steps of initializing, configuring channels, configuring data collection, performing an operation, and stopping and closing the port properly.

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**INSTALLATION (Important location of folder!!):

Place the folder called "LABPRO" in the "user.lib" folder. This is usually located at C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW X.X\user.lib.



**USB (Important USB driver installation for MacOSX and Windows):

LabVIEW is able to communicate with LabPro via the USB port with the help of a library file and a USB driver. The library file is included in the LABPRO folder, in the "Driver VIs" subfolder. The USB driver is installed when LoggerPro is installed. It is recommended that you use the driver that comes with LoggerPro 3.3 or newer (although the driver with LoggerPro 3.2 or 3.1 may work). If you do not have LoggerPro installed then you do not have the required USB driver. To get this driver installed there are three options; you can install LoggerPro 3.3 or newer, download and install the USB driver for free from our website (Windows only), or install a LoggerPro 3.3 demo version from our website.  



**SERIAL (Important Serial driver installation):

Communicating with LabPro via the Serial port in LabVIEW 7.0 requires the NI-VISA driver. This is a driver from National Instruments. The driver is available to be downloaded for free on the NI website, or can be found on your installation CD's (except the student version).



**ACCESSING THE LABPRO SubVIs:

Correct location of the LABPRO folder in the user.lib folder is important because it provides easy access to the subVIs and Express VIs. Access to the palette of LabPro VIs is as simple as going to your User Libraries functions palette (right click in the block diagram and navigate the palettes to Functions>>All Functions>>User Libraries>>LabPro). Once located, simply drag and drop the required subVI or Express VI onto your block diagram.



**NEW / CHANGES:

The last posting of the LabPro Toolkit was done in May 2004. The two major changes include all new Express VIs (including Express VIs for Analog out, Digital sequencing and Digital out direct) and removal of examples. The examples are removed from the LABPRO folder because they were too difficult to find. Now, the examples will be available as separate downloads. This will allow you to place the examples on your desktop or somewhere easy to locate. In addition, the examples have been updated, and more examples have been created. Other changes include:

* The LabPro Assistant Express VI did not properly close the port - this was fixed.
* New 2010 and 2011 command subVIs created for digital out direct. Unlike the 2001 command, these commands do not interfere with both DIG/Sonic ports. This allows such things as the DCU and a motion detector to be used together. 
* New DIG/Sonic setup with command 1. The s{1,11,..} command now has the ability to setup such things as photogates and rotary motion detectors using the 1 command. This allows real time, indefinite collection from these sensors.
* A "Get Status" subVI was created and shared by Ryan Danell. As described by him, this subVI "gets all of the LabPro status information, most importantly the error status.  This VI can also be configured to report with an error dialog window the actual LabPro interpreted error code (once the included error code file is properly placed in the ...\user.lib\errors directory).  This VI was indispensable in building my application". (The error code file can be found in the "Status" subfolder).



**OTHER RESOURCES:

Go to our website at www.vernier.com/labview to find more resources including:
* The Technical Reference Manual - provides details on commands and programming the LabPro.  
* The new Robotics and Controls Kit - provides lots of projects 
* DCU and DCU Manual
* Example VIs
* Documents on getting started programming the LabPro using LabVIEW
* Workshops
* USB installer for Windows



**TROUBLESHOOTING:

* Make sure you have located the folder "LABPRO" in the user.lib folder.
* NI-VISA 3.0 or later must be installed
* If using a USB connection the USB driver windrv6.sys must be installed
* Close all programs that may take control of the port (like Logger Pro)
* The computer must be setup with the decimal separator as a period (not comma).
* You may have to have LabPro plugged in before starting LabVIEW. 
* You cannot send commands to LabPro faster than about 30 commands/second. 
* If there is no delay between sending commands LabPro's buffer will overflow or commands will get chopped up and 4 beeps will occur.
* If you do not properly stop and close the port you may create any number of problems.
* If unable to communicate, shut down LabVIEW and verify with LoggerPro.
* Make sure you have power to the LabPro
* Disconnect and reconnect all cable connections
* Reset LabPro by unplugging and plugging it back in 

