Labjack

LabJack

During the system design of the gas rig it was decided to use a Labjack U3 to control the valves (digital IO) and read the vacuum pressure sensor (Analogue in 16 bit). Although at first this was a good idea and arguably still is, it came with some complications.

Labjack Wrapper and HAL

The main complication was that there is no cross platform library for the U3. Hence a Labjack wrapper was developed to ensure the project stayed cross platform compatible. This wrapper class combines the linux+Mac driver with the windows driver for the Labjack.

Once the wrapper class was created and tested across platform the Labjack HAL was created. This gives the application basic functions that the labjack supports but not the full suit that the windows driver + library allows for.

WatchDog

Yet to be implemented into the system is a watch dog timer to ensure that the PC and Labjack are functioning correctly.

LabJack Hal

When developing the labjack hal file the following links may come in handy to understand the communication protocol.

• All possible functions
• Returning / controlling IO
• Configuring U3
• Error codes
• Calibrating analogue input reading