Ethernet communication Labview

Communication protocol used in this project is TCP\IP. Robot is the client

and the external PC is server.

Setting Up A Server

So a server is created on external system using labview. All the required

VI’s are present in function palette under Data Communication->protocols-
>tcp\ip.

First client sends a signal to server to start the communication and the
server replies with a data packet which in our case is a XML string.
Therefore “TCP Listen.vi” is used which waits for an incoming signal.

Input Output
Port:6008 Connection ID: Unique ID and is
used in subsequent blocks.
Net address: String to IP. vi Remote Address: IP of the
present TCP\IP palette. client(Robot).

Following is the communication flowchart:

As it is evident from the flowchart that after receiving the request from client
data is sent to robot therefore we will use “TCP write.vi “ .

Input Output
Connection ID: From TCP listen .vi Connection ID:Used in subsequent VI’s
Data In: Data to be written which is Bytes Written: No. Of bytes
contents of file “ExternalData.xml” transferred to client.

After This robot replies with a XML string and “TCP Read.vi” is used for receiving
the data packet.
 Input Output
Connection ID: From TCP Write .vi Connection ID: Used in subsequent
VI’s
Bytes to read: No. Of bytes to be read Data Out: Received Data .
340 in this case . Use hit an trial
method to figure out no. Of bytes.

Three main parts covered are:

2. Joystick interface with labview.

3. Setting up a server in labview .

These 2 are integrated together for faithful communication.

 It is the image of main VI

 Outer while loop runs continuously ,waiting for an incoming connection

and after receiving the request the inner loop is executed.
 Contents of file ExternalData.xml are read using Read from text file.vi and
is sent to robot using TCPwrite.vi.
 Robot sends a data packet and it is received using TCPread.vi.
 To send new data errorout of TCPread.vi is used.It is a cluster of 3
elements and one of them is a Boolean. When there is no error its value is
false .
 A case structure is used and it has two cases either false or true. Errorout
of TCP read.vi is connected to its input after inversion using not gate.
Whenever server reads the data successfully it calls the structure and subvi
is called.
 Instead of using the received data for current coordinates content of
ExternalData.Xml is used which has the last sent coordinates using Read
from text file.vi(6)
Read from text file.vi
Input Output
File(use dialog):Path of Text:Contents of the file
externaldata.xml on the hard drive

 After reading the data we use Matchpattern.vi(1) to get the positon of

values of X,Y,Z in the file.
Match pattern.vi
Input Output
String: Connected to output of (6). Offset past match:Offset of the
coordinates in the file.
Regular string:String just before the
value of coordinates.
 Different match pattern.vi is used for each coordinate.
 Offset is used to extract the values of coordinates using String
subset.vi(2).
String subset.vi
Input Output
String: Contents of Substring: Value of coordinate.
externaldata.xml
Offset: Connected to match
pattern
Length: Length of string to be
extracted.

 Coordinates from String subset is the form of string and is converted

to an integer using Frac/Exp string to number vi(3).
 These coordinates are added to the increment value obtained from
joystick.
 New coordinate values are converted to string using Number to
fractional string VI(5).
 Number to fractional string VI

Input Output
Number: Input number F-Format string: Coordinates in form
of string.
Width: Number of digits needed to
represent the number .Value is 7
Precision: Number of digits after
decimal point. Value is 2.

 Using Replace substring vi (4)the values of coordinates are updated in

externaldata.xml.
Replace Substring vi
Input Output
String: content of ExternalData.xml Result string :complete string after
replacing substring .
Substring: Connected to (5).
Offset: connected to match pattern
vi.
Length: length of substring.

 Three replace substring vi’s are used , the output of first vi will be the input
of second and output of second will be the input of 3RD and output of 3RD
will be the final string which is written in file EXternalData.xml .
 After the increment is calculated by moving the joystick ,button 2 is pressed
which terminates the while loop and data is written to externaldata.xml
using write to text file VI(7).

Write to text file.vi

Input Output
File(use dialog):Path of
externaldata.xml on the hard drive
Text:Connected to output of 3RD
 Replace substring vi.

 After the file is written, inner loop of main vi starts to execute and
contents of updated externaldata.xml is sent to robot.
 This process continues and there is continuous exchange of XML
strings between external pc and robot.
 All the string related VI’s are present in function palette under
programming->string.
 VI’s related to text files are present in function palette under
programming->File I\O.
 For any queries related to labview use Google or post the problem on
official labview forum and someone will definitely reply to the query.

For complete project details visit ->ayushdewan.wordpress.com