Power Meters FAQ's

Software

LabVIEW Libraries

I see that you have several LabVIEW packages. What is the difference between them?

05/27/15

Libraries for Nova and LaserStar were developed in LabVIEW 6.1. They have been tested and found compatible with LabVIEW 7.0 and LabVIEW 8.6.1 as well.

The library for Nova-II, Vega, and Juno support (OphirInstr) was developed in LabVIEW 8.6.1 and has been tested with NI-VISA 4.6.2. It also includes support for the Single Channel LaserStar. This has been tested in LabVIEW 2009 as well. 

The library for Pulsar support (DemoForPulsar) was developed in LabVIEW 7.0 and tested in LabVIEW 8.6.1 as well.

The new LabVIEW COM Demo that supports the Juno, Vega, Nova-II, Pulsar devices was developed in LabVIEW 8.6.1 and has been tested in LabVIEW 8.6, LabVIEW 2009 and LabVIEW 2013 as well.

Using your LabVIEW VIs, I have followed all of the instructions and receive the error "1301" etc.

05/27/15

Device responses take the form 1.234 (a period distinguishes between the integer and fractional part of a real number). This may not match the settings of the computer upon which the VI is running. For example, many European countries use a comma (",") in place of a period (1,234). This causes the LabVIEW VI to not "understand" the devices's response.
(Go to http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/99d21982a9f954e186256a5b0057919e the section on Period and Comma Decimal Separators for National Instrument's explanation) 

Solution: LabVIEW allows the User to override the local regional settings of the computer within the LabVIEW environment. To do so

1. Open LabVIEW
2. Select Menu >> Tools >> Options
3. Select Front Panel in the ListBox
4. Deselect Use localized decimal point*
5. Close LabVIEW
6. Open LabVIEW and run the Ophir Instrument VIs

 

How can I interface my Ophir Power Meter (Starbright, StarLite, Juno, USBI, Pulsar, NOVA II, Vega, USBI) to LabVIEW?

05/27/15

For customers using the new LabVIEW COM Demo, there is nothing additional to do. Just open it and get started. If writing your own LabVIEW application, make sure that the OphirLMMeasurement COM Object is included in your LabVIEW application

For customers using the legacy OphInstr LabVIEW package, ensure that NI Visa 4.6.2 or higher (from National Instruments) is installed on the PC.

I get the following error when trying to use a non-Ophir application (e.g., LabVIEW) with the COM Object and an Ophir USB device: Expected TypeLib with CLSID {[…]} and Version [X], but found Version [Y]. (The brackets are intended to represent user-specific error information. This has been removed to show a more general version of the error message.)

05/27/15

If your LabVIEW program is 64-bit, then you must run:
Surrogate64BitOphirCOMobject.reg
Close your LabVIEW application, run the above "reg" file, then run your application again.