VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION USING LABVIEW

BY S.ANITHA KUMARI A.P(O.G) DEPT. OF EIE

Virtual Instrument
LabVIEW works on a data flow model in which information within a LabVIEW program, called a virtual instrument (VI), flows from data sources to data sinks connected by wires. LabVIEW supports two types of VIs--internal VIs and user created VIs. Internal VIs are packaged with LabVIEW and perform simple functions like adding numbers or opening files. User created VIs consist of both a graphical user interface called the front panel and a code pipeline called the block diagram.

FRONT PANEL
Every user created VI has a front panel that contains the graphical interface with which a user interacts. The front panel can house various graphical objects ranging from simple buttons to complex graphs. It also includes nonfunctioning items such as free labels and decorations.

Block diagram

The Block Diagram is a window where the graphical code is created.

Accessing the Functions Palette in the Block Diagram

Popping-Up on Controls and Indicators

The Tool Palette

To manage, modify, and debug VI's .

AutomaticToolSelection AutomaticallyselectsbetweentheOperate Value,Position/Size/Select,EditTextandConnectWireTools.Itisthe mostcommonlySelecteditemontheToolsPalette. OperateValue ManipulatesthevaluesofFrontPanelControlsand Indicators.GenerallyselectedwhilerunningaVI. Position/Size/Select SelectsobjectsinaVI,movesthemandresizes them. EditText CreatesFreeLabelsontheFrontPanelandeditstheirtext. AlsoeditstextinOwnedLabels. ConnectWire WiresBlockDiagramnodesandobjectstogether. ObjectShortcutMenu Displaysanobject'spopupmenuwiththeleft mousebutton. ScrollWindow PansthecontentonaVIwindowwithoutusingthe window'sscrollbars.

Set/ClearBreakpoint CreatebreakpointsinaVIBlock Diagramfordebuggingpurposes.BreakpointscausetheVI tosuspendexecutionataparticularpoint. ProbeData PlacesProbesonwiresintheBlockDiagramfor debuggingpurposes.AProbedisplaysthedataonawire whereitisplaced. GetColor CopiescolorsfromVIobjectstopastingwiththe SetColorTool. SetColor ColorsobjectsinaVIanddisplaystheforeground andbackgroundcolorsoftheobject.

DATA TYPES
There are three possible data types in a VI Number- This data type contains numbers that can be either floating point or integer. Boolean - This data type contains logical combinations of TRUE/FALSE, AND, OR, NOT, Etc. String - Contains alpha-numeric characters only All of these data types can be in either Scalar, 1D Array or 2D Array form.

Wire Types

There are different wire colors and types that depict what kind of data is flowing through a particular wire and if it is in Scalar, 1D Array or 2D Array form:

Numeric Control Representation

REPRESENTION
Representation byte unsigned byte word unsigned word long unsigned long single precision double precision extend precision

ABBREVATION
Abbreviation I8 U8 I16 U16 I32 U32 SGL DBL EXT

TERMINAL
Terminal

SIZE(BYTES)
Size (bytes) 1 1 2 2 4 4 4 8 16

complex single complex double complex extended

CSG CDB CXT

8 16 32

CHANGING REPRESENTATIONS

WIRING
Wires are data flow paths between Block Diagram components. Block Diagram nodes are wired together for logical functioning of the VI. Deleting wires: Creatingwires:selecttheConnectWiretoolonthetoolspalette

Wire Stretching: move a wired node on the Block Diagram, the

wires will stretch to follow the node

Selecting wires:

Align and Distribute Objects Rings

To quickly and easily make the objects on your Front Panel or Block Diagram nice and neat.

RUNNING VI

click on a Broken Run button,to get a list of errors in a pop-up window

DEBUGGING VIs

Debugging Tools on the Block Diagram

Debugging Tools on the Tools Palette

ExecutionHighlight

when pressed, turns bright and allows you to view the data flow through the Block Diagram slowly as it goes from one Block Diagram component to the next. activates the single-step mode which steps the execution of the VI from node to node. Each node blinks then it executes one at a time. activates the single-step mode and is used to step into a loop or Sub VI so you can single step inside them. used to step out of a loop or Sub VI and to end the execution of a VI. used to set breakpoints or stopping points in a VI, especially in a Sub VIs, functions, structures and wires. creates probes on wires in the Block Diagram. It shows the data at that point in a wire at a particular time. It is used for checking intermediate data inside a VI.

StepOver StepInto StepOut BreakpointTool ProbeTool

SUB VIs
The Sub VI is considered as a lower-level VI inside of an upper-level VI. This reduces the number of Block Diagram icons, which simplifies and modularizes the VI. Sub VIs are much like functions or subroutines in conventional text-based programming languages. Steps in creating sub vi: create sub vi icon Assign sub vi connectors

STRUCTURES
In addition to controls, indicators, and VIs, the block diagram can also contain a number of programming structures that modify the sequence of data flow on the block diagram. LabVIEW currently supports six different structures, -whileloops, case structures, event structures, for-loops, sequence structures, and formula nodes.

WHILE LOOP
A While Loop executes all or a portion of your Block Diagram code multiple times
pseudo-code: Do Execute diagram Inside the loop While the condition is TRUE/FALSE Create a While Loop Block Diagram > Functions > Structures > While Loop Drag a rectangle area around the portion of Block Diagram code that is to be included in the while loop

While loop components

The Conditional Terminal Continue if True condition. the

while loop will continue to repeat the code until a boolean value of FALSE is passed to the conditional terminal. Stop if True condition. the while loop will continue to repeat the code until a boolean value of TRUE is passed to the conditional terminal.

The Iteration Terminal

outputs the number of times the loop has been executed

Controlling a while loop

The conditional terminal is wired to a Boolean Terminal. This terminal represents a Boolean Control (switch) on the Front Panel for the user to control the operation of the while loop.

FOR LOOP
The For Loop repeats Block Diagram code a predetermined number of counted times. When the number of iterations equals the predetermined count, the loop stops. pseudo-code: For i = 0 to N-1 Execute diagram inside the loop Create a For Loop Block Diagram > Functions > Structures > For Loop: then drag a rectangle area around the portion of Block Diagram code that is to be included in the for loop

For loop components

The Count Terminal The Count Terminal is where the predetermined count is placed. to control the number of iterations. The Iteration Terminal The Iteration Terminal in a for loop It is a terminal that outputs the number of times the loop has been executed. The count starts at zero (the first iteration of the loop is Iteration Zero)

Case structures
The Case Structure is a method of executing conditional statements. The Case Structure is similar to if ... then ... else statements in conventional programming languages. pseudo code: If (Condition = Something) Then Do This Else Do That Endif

Case Structure is configured like a deck of cards. Labview only executes one at a time. case executed is determined by the value wired to the selector terminal

CASE STRUCTURE DATA TYPES

Creating a Case Structure

Creating a Case Structure is much like creating While Loops and For Loops. To create a Case Structure, Pop-up in the Block Diagram > Structures > Case Structure. Drag an area for the Case Structure to encompass. Managing case structure

The Select Function

In simple if-then-else cases, you can use the Select function:

This function: Returns the value wired to the t terminal if the value at the s terminal is TRUE Returns the value wired to the f terminal if the value at the s terminal is FALSE.

SEQUENCE STRUCTURES

used to control the order of execution of nodes that are not data dependent on each other. The nodes within each frame are data dependent The output tunnels of Sequence Structures can only have one data source which, unlike Case Structures, has outputs that must have one data source per case. The output can come from any frame, but the data will not leave the structure until the last frame in the structure has completed it's execution. Data input is available to all frames

CREATING SEQUENCE STRUCTURE:Pop-up in the Block Diagram > Structures > Sequence Structure. Toaddmoreframes,popuponthesequenceboundary>AddFrameAfter SEQUENCE LOCAL: variablesthatallowyoutopassdatabetweenframesofaSequence Structure

Example for sequence local

FORMULAE NODE

AFormulaNodeisaboxwhereyouenter algebraicformulasdirectlyintotheBlock Diagram.Itisusefulwhenanequationis complicatedorhasmanyvariables.

 Below is an example of how you would implement y = x^2 + x + 1 with regular block diagram nodes

It is much easier to use the Formula Node.

CreatingaFormulaNode
Pop-up in the Block Diagram > Structures > Formula Node. Add an Input and an Output on the left and right vertical sides of the Formula Node's boundary. The nodes must also be named to match the variables used in the equation. Add them by popping-up on a vertical boundary > Add Input or Add Output. Label them correctly and wire them to the appropriate nodes. Thentypeequationusingthecorrectoperatorsandfunctions.Asemicolonalways followseachformulastatement.

ARRAYS

Anarrayisacollectionofdataelements.The dataelementsinanarraycanbenumeric, boolean,stringorcluster,butalldata elementsmustbeofthesametypewithinan array.Arrayscanbeoneortwodimensional.

ARRAY FUNCTIONS

Arrays can also be created and controlled by Array Functions. They are all found by popping-up in the Block Diagram > Functions > Array:

ARRAYSIZE

returns the number of elements in an array it is wired to.

INITIALIZE ARRAY

createsanarrayof dimensionsize elementscontaining theelementvalue. linksmultiplearrays.It appendselementsto anarray. itconcatenates multiplearrays

BUILD ARRAY

ARRAYSUBSET

returnsaportionofan arraystarting at index and containing length elem ents

ARRAY SEARCHING

searchesthenamearray forthetargetandreports ifthetargetisfoundas wellasitspositioninthe array.

Creating One-Dimensional Arrays With a Loop Manually creating and adding data to arrays can be tedious work. So loops are often used to create onedimensional and twodimensional arrays. Both For Loops and While Loops can create arrays and their boundaries automatically with auto indexing.

Creating TWO-Dimensional Arrays With nested Loop

The outer loop creates the row elements and the inner loop creates the column elements.

Clearing Array Data

To clear an array of data, pop-up on any Index Display > Empty Array:

INDEXING
Indexing is a feature that can be enabled for input and output tunnels of both whileloops and for-loop When an array wire passes into a loop through a tunnel that does not have indexing enabled, the entire array is placed on the wire and can be accessed during each loop iteration. When indexing is enabled, only the array element at the index corresponding to the current loop iteration is available from that tunnel.s by right clicking on a tunnel.

INPUT INDEXING

OUTPUT INDEXING

Polymorphism

Labview arithmetic functions like Add, Multiply, Divide. Etc. are polymorphic. This means that the data structures on their inputs can be either scalar or array. If any inputs are of the array data structure, the output will be an array data structure. If the inputs have array structures of different sizes, the output will be an array that is the same size as the smallest input array.

Controlling Boolean Controls

BooleanControls usually operate like switches. Most of them are in the off position by default (Normally Open). You can control the mechanical action of the Boolean Control by popping-up on it > Mechanical Action

SwitchWhenPressed TheControl'svalueischangedeachtimethe controlispressed.Thisworksmuchlikeastandardlightswitch. SwitchWhenReleased TheControl'svalueischangedwhenthemouse buttonisreleased. SwitchUntilReleased TheControl'svalueischangedwhenthecontrol isclickedandretainsthatvalueuntilthemousebuttonisreleased. LatchWhenPressed TheControl'svaluechangeswhenitisclicked, retainsthatvalueuntiltheVIreadsitonceandthenreverts backtoit's originalvalue.

LatchWhenReleased TheControl'svaluechangeswhen themousebuttonisreleased,retainsthatvalueuntilthe VIreadsitonceandthenrevertsbacktoit'soriginal value. LatchUntilReleased TheControl'svaluechangeswhenit isclicked,retainsthatvalueuntiltheVIreadsitonceor untilthemousebuttonisreleased,whicheveroccurslast.

Showing a Boolean Controls State

popping up on the control > Visible Items > Boolean Text

THANK YOU