SR400 photon counter readout in labview

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The discussion focuses on controlling the SR400 photon counter using LabVIEW, with the user successfully executing commands despite the absence of a manual for the drivers. The main issue is obtaining continuous count data, as the current setup only retrieves final counts after a counting period. It is suggested that if the LabVIEW drivers lack the desired functionality, users can manually send commands through GPIB using LabVIEW's GPIB Read and Write functions. The user acknowledges that the SR400 manuals, available for free online, contain useful information, particularly in the "remote programming" section. Ultimately, the user adapts their approach after realizing the limitations of the drivers, leading to an opportunity to learn more about GPIB.
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I'm trying to get the hang of labview and it's going pretty well so far. My plan is to control a SR400 photon counter and I seem to get it to do stuff on my commands even though there's no manual for the drivers. (does anyone have one? :) )

My problem/question:
I can get the counts for each gate with the SR400 driver "Query Counts.vi", but I only get the final counts after a counting period. I'd like to get the counts continuously, as they are shown on the SR400 display (would be nice to know the long time behaviour of the counts).

Suggestions/Tips?
 
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The Labview drivers are just another "layer" on top of the commands sent to the instrument over the GPIB bus (or whatever interface you are using). Hence, if the functionlity you need is not included in the drivers you just have to do it "manually" by sending the relevant commands directly to the instrument using GPIB Read and GPIB write in Labview (and if you want to be fancy SRQ polling, but that is rarely needed).


I've never used a SR400, but the manuals from SR are usually quite good (and are free downloads from their website). Hence, look in the "remote programming" section of the manual.
 
Thank you for your reply, I found out that it is not possible to do what I first wanted so I simply did it in another way. The drivers also don't seem to be free of problems, but that on the other hand gives me a reason to learn GPIB... :)
 
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