TM

LabVIEW Basics I Course

National Instruments
11500 N. Mopac Expressway
Austin, Texas 78759
(512) 794-0100
LV Basics I
 Evolution of Instrumentation

Flexibility PC

TV

50 75
Radio
25 10
0 0

Clock

Time

PC Based Virtual Instrumentation has become the new

methodology for instrumentation
LV Basics I
 Virtual Instrumentation

Stand Alone Instrument PC Based Instrument

DISPLAY
AND
CONTROL

Vendor Defined User Defined

LV Basics I
 Key Elements of Virtual Instruments

Acquisition Analysis Presentation

INSTRUMENT
User Interface
Signal DAQ Boards
Calculate
Routing and IEEE488 (GPIB)
Hard Copy
Conditioning VXI
RS-232
File I/O

Format Interprocess
Communication
Trigger Control
Networking

LV Basics I
 The Virtual Instrument

Industry-standard
components
Flexible
Scalable
Connectivity
Compatibility
Increased productivity
Reduced cost

LV Basics I
 LabVIEW
The Industry-Standard Virtual Instrumentation Software

Graphical Programming for

Virtual Instrumentation
front panel graphical user
interfaces
graphical block diagram source
code
compiler for optimized execution
Standalone executables for easy
distribution

LV Basics I
 Software Architecture

LabVIEW
Acquisition Analysis Presentation

Instrument Drivers

NI-488.2 NI-VXI NI-DAQ Serial

Commands

LV Basics I
 LabVIEW Product History
1998
LabVIEW 5
1998 - LabVIEW 5
1996
The Power to Make It Simple!
LabVIEW 4
1996 - LabVIEW 4
1994
Customizable Interface
LabVIEW for HP-UX
Add-On Toolkits
September 1992 1994 - LabVIEW 3
LabVIEW for Windows LabVIEW for HP-UX
LabVIEW for Sun Add-On Toolkits
April 1990
1992 - New operating systems
U.S. Patent
February 1990
Microsoft Windows, OpenWindows, X Windows
Introduction on other platforms
U.S. Patent
January 1990 1990 - LabVIEW 2
LabVIEW 2 Mature product -- four years of customer feedback
Compiler to match industry needs
October 1986 1986 - LabVIEW 1
LabVIEW 1 Introduced innovative approach to programming
Macintosh only possible platform
April 1983
LabVIEW Concept
1983 - LabVIEW concept
Search for instrumentation software solution
LV Basics I Virtual instrument concept
 Multiplatform Compatibility

Platform neutral
Leverage common
technology
Migrate applications
between platforms
Also available on
Concurrent PowerMAX

LV Basics I
 Integrating Your System

Hardware & Driver Software LabVIEW

Acquisition and Control PC or Software
Workstation Analysis and
Presentation

DAQ Products

Serial Instruments

Process GPIB Instruments Other

networked
computers
Unit Under Test
VXI Instruments

LV Basics I
 Who Is National Instruments?

Acquisition Analysis Presentation

IEEE 488.2 Signal generation GUI
controllers
Digital filters Strip charts
Plug-in data
acquisition boards Smoothing windows Graphs

VXI controllers Statistics Hardcopy

Software for DSP hardware File I/O

RS-232 instruments

HiQ (Post analysis and report generation)

LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and ComponentWorks

LV Basics I