Dashboard Reader Buffers Full

[norm365]

The 512 buffers or the READ VI get used up after a short time: then the DISPLAY VI stops updating the data from the RC or OI in a timely fashion. Data input stops for seconds. I thought that we had added too much functionality: we coded every frame element available and added a DAQ VI to read Victor controller output while using the dashboard. Then went back to the original dashboard and added the DAQ vi. Still throughput problems. Can we improve this or is it a limitation of the 19200 baud rate?
By the way this is a great tool to introduce students to LabVIEW.

[Danny Diaz]

Have you considered using the improved dashboard framework provided in the Simulation Toolkit (even if you don't use the toolkit for anything else, the dashboard functionality it provides is top notch)? Just grab the toolkit, and also the VI I put in this post, and use that as a framework for your dashboard - I think you'll be happier with this.

-Danny

[norm365]

I had not but will now. I had students go through the 3 hour tutorial and the 2 tutorial leading to the modeling kit but never got to look at the kit. Will give it try. Thanks Danny.

[norm365]

Wow! The simplicity of design of this new dashboard! We are now using it. No more buffers filling up! Thanks!

[Danny Diaz]

Glad to hear it is working out well for you. Team 418 is also using this improved dashboard this year - we used it last year when we won the Innovation in Control Award at Lone Star - but we've got so many USB-Serial adapters plugged into our control laptop it's crazy. Plus, the kids constantly plug and unplug the USB ports into the laptop, so it's a real pain to keep track of the correct port the Dashboard is on. The lead student LabVIEW programmer wrote a quick program based on the Dashboard Provider that scans all the Serial ports and finds the one the Dashboard is on automagically, so we never have to muck with that when we start/stop the Dashboard after rearranging the USB ports. We also merged the Provider and the Dashboard into one VI, so we have a compact unit for our needs.

It's something to think about, these kinds of things help us keep our sanity.

-Danny