LabVIEW 2013 and MAX

Aug 15/Nov 5, 2014

New for 2013 is LabVIEW 2013; for the past several years we have used rev 7.1. The first big difference is how inputs and outputs from the DAQ card 6024E are accessed in VIs.

Associated with each setup is a 68 pin cable from the 6024E card to a green screw terminal card that allows you to hook up wires for input and output from the 6024E card... See bottom of page for pinout...

On each computer with LabVIEW 2013 go to C:/Program Files/National Instruments/LabVIEW2013/manuals to look for the Getting Started pdf.

The first "virtual instrument" (VI) concepts to appreciate about LabVIEW are the Front Panel and Block Diagram windows that are part of any VI. The front panel contains control knobs and indicators, including graphs; the block diagram uses a different pallette of functions and processes the inputs to generate the outputs... It has one section NI Instruments / Data Acquistion that contains icons for analog and digital input and output, for connection to outside sensors and actuators.

For Lab 0 you will want to read about Loop and Case Structures.

MAX is the Measurement & Automation Explorer that can test the 6024E board independent of LabVIEW. (yellow arrow/blue ribbon icon), Click on "Devices and Interfaces" to see the 6024E come up.

On the Block diagram of a VI under view bring up the Tools pallette. Practice with the Wiring Tool to become comfortable with hooking up icons. You can hit tab to switch between various tools.

Naming advice: If you have a working VI and want to "improve" it, rename it as filename2 so if something goes wrong you can revert to a working VI...

There are two locations for an FFT operator: On the functions menu under Signal Processing, in the Transforms tab (1st choice) and in the Spectral tab named, Power Spectrum.

From Lab 5 writeup:
DAQ_Assist advice: Suppose you want to capture 60 seconds of data from one (or two, if you're "differential" directly across the bridge...) analog channels. Say 10Hz sample rate for 600 samples. You might get bonged by Error -200284. To remedy the error go back and open up DAQ Assist and click on the Advanced Timing tab. Increase the "Timeout" number from 10 (a default that works for Lab 9...) to 60...or 61 or 62... then hit OK.