U6

This AppNote explains the operation and use of the I2C functionality of our LabJack devices with special regards to the Honeywell HMC6352 Magnetometer.  

DASYLab began offering support for Modbus TCP in version 11 service pack 1. The UE9 natively supports this protocol when connected over Ethernet.  With our continued work on LJSocket, any program capable of Modbus TCP can communicate with UD family devices over USB. Since DASYLab provides built in support for analog and digital I/O through this convenient protocol, we suggest that our clients utilize those native modules if possible. However, please note that Modbus does not expose some of our devices' more advanced functionality, particularly stream mode.

UE9 over Ethernet: Modbus over Ethernet will require version 1.41 of the communications firmware and version 2.04 of the control firmware. However, we suggest that you use more recent releases if possible. We conducted our testing with version 1.50 and 2.18 of the communication and control firmware respectively. As of this writing, both of these releases are in beta and, thus, we provide these versions on our beta firmware page. More information on firmware upgrades can be found on our firmware page.

Any UD Family Device over USB with LJSocket: Please refer to our LJSocket documentation.

File attachment: 

screen 1.jpg

This is an archived version of the LabJack Universal Driver(UD). If you would like the latest version, please get it from here.

This driver supports the U3, U6, and UE9. This install includes drivers, documentation, and the utility applications LJControlPanel and LJSelfUpgrade. August 12, 2009, 10.3 MB, Windows XP/Vista/7 32-bit.

The utility applications LJControlPanel and LJSelfUpgrade require the .NET framework available for free from Microsoft. The installer above will detect whether .NET framework V1.1 is installed, and if not will download and install it (~22 MB).

If you need a different version of the UD driver or use 64-bit architecture, please visit this support page.

File attachment: 

LabJackUDSetupV315.exe

This is a barebones installer for the LabJackUD driver that people who distribute software that uses a LabJack can use.  It currently installs the WinUSB hardware driver, the LabJackUD.dll software driver and will also have an option to support the LJUDDotNet.dll component. 

This is still in development.  Currently, you should uninstall all other LabJack installations before testing it (it will prompt if not).  

There are two versions.  The only difference between the two is that the silent version has no GUI at all, thus it will display no dialogs, but will return a value of zero on success and non-zero on error.  Both these .exes can be called from your own installer.

If you would like any changes made or run into any problems please let us know at support@labjack.com.

File attachment: 

Basic barebones installer v. 3.25b

Silent barebones installer v. 3.25b

This is an advanced section. Visit it only after you’ve outgrown the material on the LJFuse page.

Requirements

This section requires LJFuse created on 9/16/2010 or later.

Timers and Counters with Modbus

In this section, we will use LJFuse with the timers and counters on a U3. By default, LJFuse does not provide an interface to timers and counters. There are no connections for them in the connection/ subdirectory, and there are no Modbus addresses for them in the modbus/ directory. What we will do in this section is create the files in the modbus/ directory for the necessary Modbus registers. While working through this section, you’ll need a copy of the LabJack Modbus Map:

http://labjack.com/support/modbus

open in a new window.

Accessing the Modbus directory

All the commands in this section work only in the modbus/ subdirectory of a device, so go there first.

  
# Change to the modbus/ directory
$ cd root-ljfuse/My\ U3-LV/modbus/
$ pwd
/Users/mikec/src/LJFuse/root-ljfuse/My U3-LV/modbus
# View the Modbus registers
$ ls
0           5002        6002        6006        6102        6106
2           6           6003        6007        6103        6107
4           6000        6004        6100        6104        README.txt
5000        6001        6005        6101        6105
  

Using the counters

Looking at the LabJack Modbus Map (you do have that open, right?), notice that register 50502 is a “Counter Mask”. We can write to that register to enable a counter.

But wait, look at the output of “ls” above. There is no file for 50502. This is the key point of this whole section:

In the modbus/ directory, you may create files for the Modbus addresses that are missing.

p.

The latest U6 firmware has replaced these versions.

File attachment: 

U6firmware_100_08242009.hex

U6firmware_103_10092009.hex

U6firmware_104_12012009.hex

U6firmware_113_04222010.hex

U6firmware_122_12012010.hex

U6firmware_124_03012011.hex

U6firmware_126_04072011.hex

U6firmware_135_11302011.hex

These firmware files require LJSelfUpgrade V1.21 or higher in order to upgrade the U6, which is included with the labjack installer.

U6 Firmware Revision History

1.39: Modified U6_Stream_ReadSample to handle extended channels. Added a function to load more than 25 stream channels. Using the LED IO type will now disable automatic LED operations. The L2L interrupt for timer 1 will no longer disable TMR3.

1.35: Analog channels 64 and above will now set the MIO lines properly. Changed the way digital IO are updated to prevent 2-10us output-high blips during startup. Added an idle check to I2C. Fixed a timing problem with 1-wire reads. Changed stream auto recover to cease operation when there is less than 1 packet worth of data in the buffer, was previously 2 packets. Added modbus feedback function (for internal testing), added modbus I2C. Attempted to elimate errors while reading the system timer through stream. I2C will now return ACK information when only reading. Only one ack for the address will be reported, even when the address needs to be transmitted twice. Improved timer reads in stream mode.

Older Versions

File attachment: 

U6firmware_139_02192013.hex

LJFuse makes communicating with a LabJack device simple on Linux and Mac OS X. Really simple. Trivial, really.

Introduction

It’s been said (many, many, times) that everything’s a file in UNIX. LJFuse adopts that philosophy and makes the connections on a LabJack device into files on the filesystem. To do so, it uses FUSE on Linux and MacFUSE on Mac OS X.

For example, to read analog input AIN0, read a file named “AIN0”.

  
$ cat MyU6/connection/AIN0
3.300
  

To set DAC0 to 2.4V, write “2.4” to a file named “DAC0”.

  
$ echo 2.4 > MyU6/connection/DAC0
$ cat MyU6/connection/DAC0   # Read the DAC0 to verify it was set
2.400
  

To set FIO0 to digital output high, write a “1” to “FIO0”.

  
$ echo 1 > MyU6/connection/FIO0-dir  # Set the direction to output
$ echo 1 > MyU6/connection/FIO0      # Set the state to output high
$ cat MyU6/connection/FIO0           # Read the value back
1    
  

You can do this from any program that knows how read and write files. Your program doesn’t need to know about USB communication, drivers, or the LabJack API. The details are hidden by LJFuse.

Quickstart

Check the requirements (in short, a working LabJackPython installation on Linux or Mac OS X), and download the source code for LJFuse from GitHub. Click the “ZIP” or “Download Source” button on the GitHub page to download.

Connect a LabJack and run LJFuse like this:

  
$ python ljfuse.py
  

p.