On Send Protocol Help

[BrianYao]

Hi,

I'm using DAQFactory to control an HPLC pump. I wrote a two separate I/O types (that use the polling function) to get the flow rate and pressure into channels to monitor these parameters. The I/O for one of them is below. This seems to be working.

device.HPLC_Pump_A.Purge()

private string A =device.HPLC_Pump_A.Poll("CC",47)

private string B = remove(A,"/")

private string C = parse(B,2,",")

private Pump_A_FR = StrToDouble(C)

local.channel.addvalue("HPLC_Pump_A",1,"GetFlowRate",2,Pump_A_FR)

I'm worried that when I send the pumps a command (for instance to start the pump, change the flow rate, or ask for other information), if I'm unlucky with the timing, the command will get purged due to purge I put in the monitoring of the flow rate and pressure. Is there something I can add to the On Send or On Receive to make sure that my commands will make it through? Or should I remove the purge from the I/O type?

Thanks

[AzeoTech]

You'll want to use the LockPort() and UnlockPort() functions to prevent the sort of overlap you described.  It should be something like:

try
   if (!LockPort())
      throw("Couldn't lock port")
   endif
   // do comms
   UnlockPort()
catch()
   UnlockPort()
   throw()
endcatch

But note that the way you are writing your script really doesn't justify using a User protocol.   You are hardcoding all the specs, even the port connection, so the channel configuration doesn't matter, and reuse will be hard.  You are just using the channel as a trigger.  You would probably be better off just writing sequences.  It will be much easier to debug.  You still might have to lock the port if you use multiple threads.