I am a software engineer with nearly a decade of experience using National Instruments' LabView. I have worked at consulting firms that use primarily LabView and National Instruments products for various turnkey projects. I have also use LabView throughout much of my career in conjunction with embedded firmware development on various products in a variety of industries. My intent with this blog is to provide a jumpstart for learning LabView programming. Hopefully, with time, this blog will become a valuable resource for anyone wishing to use LabView. I would like to start with some basic topics and take a relatively non-conventional approach to teaching LabView that I believe will help those who are not necessarily software experts.
There are a few barriers to entry for would-be LabView programmers. The first is that it is not cheap. The minimal version is typically $995. However, there are academic versions widely available at University bookstores and online. Additionally, demo versions can be found at www.ni.com. The second barrier is that most advice, blogs, forums, contain expert information and advice for very specific situations. The beginner level information is found either by attending costly courses or purchasing and reading vast books of detailed information. I intend first to generate the bare minimum information to get you started using LabView. If I can get you, as a beginner, to the level where the freely available information or reference books are sufficient to continue down the path of becoming a LabView developer, then I will consider this blog to have served its purpose.
6 comments:
HI,
can I copy some of your post about labview if it is ok to you ...
thanks,
Hello,
I am a student doing a project at my university, and I would apprciate it very much if you could help me with this.
I need to make a simple PID controler which takes information (process variable) from an outside source (a NI's DAC connected through the USB port ) which is acomplished using NI-DAQ as an input, and the PID's output goes to the second NI-DAQ which is also connected using DAC to an actuator which in my case regulates the air pressure. (I can send the two .vi files of the two versions of the project)
My problem is the following.
Both of the NI-DAQ I placed using DAQ Assist, require to be in a while loop.
-If I place them in separate loops, I have the problem of passing information between the Input NI-DAQ and the PID, and also between the PID and the Output NI-DAQ.
-If I place them both in one big loop, an error occurs saying that the selected buffer size is too small (Error -200609).
The timing settings for the DAQ's N samples, 100 samples to read at the rate of 1k (I also tried with Continuous samples and many different combinations of Samples to Read an Rate but without success).
Should I wire them with the same dt(s)?
The other thing I need to do (I'm also writing it here in order not to open new topics) is show the following 3 signals on a Graph (process variable (dynamic data type)(range 4mA - 20mA), PID output (double)(range 4mA - 20mA), and the Set Point (double)(range 0 to inf))
Firstly, is it possible to show the first two on a scale from 0 to 100 without changing the PID's output which needs to be 4-20mA?
Secondly, which graph should I use if I have different data types? (I tried the Waveform Chart, and succeeded in showing the first two; the third just messes everything up because of the range)
I would also have to make a legend explaining which signal is which (I see that this is possible with the Mixed Signal Graph).
I know this is probably too much to ask, but I'd be grateful for any help
Thank you in advance
Awesome tutorial. Simple, to the point. Haven't found anything this good!!
Thanks!!!
Thank you for your useful contribution. It is clear you put time to prepare these for us.
It shows how kind you are.
Thanks for this blog is the only way i'm able to study labview while i'm working
To the Author : I am a beginner to Labview. I want to make a program for data acquisition from Lock-In ammplifier. What book will be the best to learn Labview from scratch.
Thanks
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