Using COM to integrate Ophir Meters into your own PC-based Photonics Application

Why would you need to use Ophir’s COM Object

Ophir’s world renowned StarLab application turns a PC into a laser power/energy multi-channel analysis workstation. StarLab features include:

1. Extensive graphic display of data:  Line Plot, Histogram, Bar Chart, Simulated Analog Needle, and Position. Multiple data sets on one graph or separate graphs on the same screen
2. Advanced measurement processing: Power/energy density, scale factor, normalizes against a reference. Multi-channel comparisons, User defined mathematical equations: channels A/B, etc.
3. Data logging for future review: Displayed graphically or saved in text format, Exported to an Excel spreadsheet.
4. Printing of graphs and data.
5. Interfaces with Ophir’s Vega, Nova-II, Juno, Pulsar, and USBI measurement devices.

However, StarLab is a closed environment that works with Ophir Power Meters only. Let’s say you have an application in which you need to integrate a laser, an Optical setup on a 3-axis motorized stage, and power measurement of that laser’s beam before and after it passes through the optics, all within one application that you write custom made for your own purposes. You’ll use software drivers provided by the various vendors and your own business logic for your application. This paper describes how to use the COM object that we provide in order to drive our Power Meters in your application.

For more on How it’s done

Supported Environments

Included in the StarLab installation directory is a subdirectory containing demos of client applications in VB.NET 2008, VC#.NET 2008, MatLab, and LabVIEW 8.6. For simplicity’s sake, these demos assume communication with one device. However, OphirLMMeasurement (Ophir’s COM object) can be used to control multiple devices.

In practice, OphirLMMeasurement can be used in any environment that allows interaction with COM automation servers (although it hasn’t been tested with tools other than those mentioned).

Besides OphirLMMeasurement Ophir provides the following interfaces:

• OphInstr: NI-VISA based LabVIEW library for communication with the Vega, Nova-II, and USBI devices as well as partial support for the Juno

Note: These older interfaces are still included with the StarLab installation so as to not disrupt legacy OEM installations by customers. However, new features will not be added to them. For new designs, we highly recommend using OphirLMMeasurement.

You might also like to read: Use StarLab to enhance your system efficiency

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