Created on 2009-08-14 23:56:00
AP2700 and ATS-2 ActiveX Automation Commands for Programming with LabVIEW or Other Languages
When writing AP2700 and ATS applications with the AP Basic macro editor, you can quickly locate automation commands with the built-in Microsoft intelliSense auto-complete typing feature. But if you are programming in LabVIEW or other languages, where do you find the ActiveX automation commands needed to control a SYS-2700 or ATS-2 audio analyzer? Here are a couple of tips:
Basic Extensions Help
The 2700 or ATS Basic Extensions Help, located under the Help menu, has detailed information on virtually every ActiveX automation command available. That's because AP Basic itself uses ActiveX automation to control the 2700 or ATS-2 audio analyzer, and the AP Basic commands are very well organized and documented in the help system. The listings on the right side of the help dialog are hyperlinks to detailed information about each command.
Using Learn Mode
Learn Mode is a great feature available to AP Basic users. While in Learn Mode, your actions and the settings you make are recorded and converted into the corresponding AP Basic commands. But even if you're using a programming language other than AP Basic, Learn Mode can help you find the ActiveX commands needed to control features of the AP2700 or ATS2 software.
For example, suppose you are using LabVIEW with AP2700 and you want to find the ActiveX commands needed to set the Digital Output to PSIA. To find the commands using Learn Mode, first start recording your actions by clicking the Start Learn Mode button on the toolbar.
While Learn Mode is active, the mouse pointer changes to an icon of a cassette tape. Now, open the Digital I/O panel ...
... and change the Output control to PSIA.
To stop Learn Mode, click the Stop Learn Mode button on the toolbar. Now, look at the code in the Macro Editor panel. As you can see, the system automatically inserted the AP Basic commands corresponding to the actions you took while in Learn Mode.
By looking at the AP Basic commands that were automatically generated, you can easily tell that the ActiveX command to set the digital output to PSIA is apbPSIA. The corresponding LabVIEW code is shown below.
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