How can I communicate with an Ophir laser Power Meter using a Linux machine?

May 9, 2018

Jonathan Feust

Let’s say the computers used in your laser environment happen to use Linux as an operating system, and you want to integrate the laser measurements from an Ophir laser power meter into your Linux computer system, preferably via USB communication. Here’s how you can make it happen quickly and easily:

If you have a laser Power Meter which has RS232 communication, then a command and response protocol with a Linux machine is the simplest way to integrate into your OEM application.
In such a case there is no dependence on which operating system is being used on the other side.

The User Commands manual, is all that you need to get your RS232 applications up and running: User Commands contains an alphabetical listing and detailed description of all commands available with the RS232-talking Nova-II, Vega, and StarBright meters.

So, what’s new?

Well, here’s where it gets interesting …We have recently developed an open source project for Linux that enables USB communication with our meters from a Linux machine via the same User Command set mentioned above.

The project enables Linux customers to integrate communication with Ophir meters which have USB communication, such as Juno, USBI, Nova-II, Vega, StarLite, and StarBright.

The project is now in Beta testing by a few select customers. If you too would like to use/test this Linux project beta version contact us at Jonathan.Feust@ophiropt.com and become one of the first ones to try it out!