Virtual Soldering （3）

Published:2011/8/2 2:59:00 Author:Amy From:SeekIC

By Dr. Thomas Scherer

What can LabVIEW do?

LabVIEW has practically everything one would expect from a normal program­ming language: all the usual variable types from bits through double-precision floating-point to arrays and compound types. Even complex numbers are avail­able. It can in some cases calculate directly with physical units. The usual constants from e to the gas constant R are available to high accuracy. Of course, all the usual control structures can be implemented using various types of loops and other commands: it is not compulsory simply to execute every­thing in parallel.

Debugging is possible using single-step­ping and semi-automatically. Values of selected variables can be displayed at any time using so-called ’probes’ (anal­ogous to test points in electronics). Memory allocation can also be con­trolled.

The most outstanding feature of Lab­VIEW, however, is the incredible num­ber of ready-made Vis for practically any application. There is the full range of usual mathematical operations includ­ing trigonometric and logarithmic func­tions, as well as an arsenal of Vis for string and array processing, and for file I/O. Of particular interest to electronics engineers will be the wealth of filtering functions offering all the usual filter characteristics with adjustable parame­ters. There are also Vis for spectrum analysis (FFTs) and complex waveform-related functions such as peak detec­tion. Results can be displayed using two-dimensional dis­play units (analogous to an oscilloscope) or in three dimensions. Simple database and statistical functions are also available.

The importance of integrated support for communications protocols and various types of bus should not be underes­timated. Not only are GPIB, CAN and serial ports sup­ported, but there is also a complete set of Internet proto­cols. It is therefore straightforward to implement remote measurement and control applications, without having to learn a great deal about network technologies. Last but not least v/e should mention the large number of data acquisition cards available with PCI or PXI inter­faces. There is no major vendor of such cards that does not offer a driver for LabVIEW, allowing one to configure and use a card in a hardware-independent fashion using abstract Vis. Figure 2 shows some of the typical Lab­VIEW tool palettes with their corresponding Vis.



If the functions built in to LabVIEW are not sufficient, there are many software companies that offer optimized ’tool sets’ for specific areas, such as the chemical indus­try, electronics for the construction industry, quality con­trol, automotive technology, vibration analysis, image processing, video monitoring etc. It is possible to write your own low-level Vis in C and integrate them: examples and support are available.

On the subject of support: early versions of LabVIEW came with about half a metre of manuals, but today all the documentation is provided on CD or in the form of context-sensitive help, so that with a little experience you will practically never need to look anything up.

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