Hello everybody,
I'm a student in mechanical engineering, working on a project regarding the realization of a drop-weight impact test machine. One of the tasks is to create the proper software architecture to acquire data from the sensors and to drive the actuators.
My aim is to create a sort of plug-n-play hardware network (I don't know if I'm using the right definitions) that can directly interface with a laptop in a easy way, ex. via Ethernet.
I'm completely new to the world of LabVIEW and I don't have a big experience in signal processing, actually I'm studying the characteristics of the sensors at my disposal.
For example to measure distances I will use two laser sensors of the M7LL series, produced by MEL (you can find the manual as attachment). This type of sensors has an electronic system with integrated Ethernet interface, and a D-sub 25 plug for data and power supply.
My questions are, how can I create a communication between this sensor and a VI on my laptop? The in-out data through the D-sub are simply a copy of the data through the Ethernet, right? If it is so, can I use the D-sub only for power supply? Do I need any further hardware to use this sensor with LabVIEW? To conclude, how can I route data coming from different sensors (both from hardware and software point of view) in order to be able to connect all of them to a single ethernet port of the PC?
Thank you in advance for your patience and for your time
Edoardo