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LabView Interface for Quantum Design Physical Properties Measurement System (PPMS)

These VIs are shareware. If you find them useful, please make a voluntary contribution ($15 suggested donation) to the Amherst College Physics Department. The funds will be used to support undergraduate research and entertainment (e.g. pizza). Please send your check to

Amherst College Physics Department
P.O. Box 5000
Amherst, MA 01002-5000

Choose from the individual VIs by clicking on one of these categories:

Main PPMS Controller
Control VIs
Numerical Readings
Status Reporting
Set Point
Sweep
Miscellaneous

This is a collection of VIs written by Brian Lyons '05 during the summer of 2003 funded by a Mellon Academic Internship Grant and a grant from the Research Corporation. They primarily serve as wrappers for GPIB commands used to control the PPMS unit, but are helpful if your data collection is being done with LabView and you do not wish to use low-level GPIB to communicate with the instrument or the MultiVu software is causing errors. They have been tested and extensively used on our own PPMS system, but are by no means guaranteed to be free of errors.

These were written with LabView 6i and so may not open or work properly in earlier versions of LabView.

CAUTION: These VIs behave poorly if run simultaneously with the software that came with the PPMS unit, MultiVu. Usually either MultiVu will report an error, LabView will crash, or both. This is because both programs are talking to the PPMS unit across the GPIB bus simultaneously. Therefore, we recommend that you exit MultiVu before running any of these VIs.

These VIs require that the GPIB bus be present and initialized properly.

The nomenclature follows these guidelines:

VIs that change a physical property have the word "set" followed by the property to be changed. For example: "PPMS set temp.vi" sets the temperature in the chamber. 
VIs that report back a numerical reading of the state of the PPMS unit contain only the name of the characteristic. For example: "PPMS field.vi" reports the magnetic field in the sample chamber. 
VIs that report the status(changing, stable, error) of some physical property have the name of the property followed by the word "status". For example: "PPMS chamber status.vi" reports back whether the chamber is sealed, pumping continuously, purging, etc. 
VIs that report the current value to which a property is set have the name of the property followed by the words "set point". For example, "PPMS position set point.vi" reports the current position set point. 
To download a VI right-click it and choose "save target as..."

Main PPMS Controller

PPMS controller.vi - a VI that pulls all the other VIs into a single front panel. This is an adequate replacement for the MultiVu software when performing simple tasks like changing the temperature and field or installing a sample or putting the unit into standby. This VI requires every other VI in the library and is contained in it. 
Control VIs

PPMS set temp.vi 
PPMS set magnet.vi 
PPMS set angle.vi 
PPMS set chamber.vi 
PPMS set analog output.vi 
Numerical Readings

PPMS field.vi 
PPMS temperature.vi 
PPMS position.vi 
PPMS resistivity.vi 
PPMS pressure.vi 
Status Reporting

PPMS magnet status.vi 
PPMS temp status.vi 
PPMS position status.vi 
PPMS chamber status.vi 
Set Point

PPMS temp set point.vi 
PPMS field set point.vi 
PPMS position set point.vi 
Sweep

empty sweep.vi 
This is a template which you can use to build VIs that sweep through a range of temperatures, magnetic fields, or positions. 
sweep.vi 
This is an empty VI format of the template above. This is required by the controller VI. 
Miscellaneous

PPMS wait for stable temp.vi - a VI that will wait up to a certain amount of time for the temperature to stabilize. 
PPMS shutdown.vi - used to put the PPMS into standby mode. 
PPMS install sample.vi - initiates the procedure that prepares the sample chamber to be opened. 
temp calibration.vi - a VI that can be used to calibrate new thermometers, thermistors, etc. Note that this VI requires both resistivity VIs and all the temperature VIs in addition to the VI listed below. 
temp calibration sweep.vi - a subVI required for temp calibration to work. 
PPMS resistivty initialize.vi - VI that sets the current and power limits for the bridge channels. This must be done before a bridge channel can be used for measurements.