LabVIEW User Manual

Description

LabVIEW User Manual Support Internet Support Bulletin Board Support Fax-on-Demand Support Telephone Support (USA) International Offices National Instruments Corporate Headquarters Important Information Warranty Copyright Trademarks WARNING REGARDING MEDICAL AND CLINICAL USE OF NATI... Contents About This Manual Organization of This Manual Part I, Introduction to G Programming Part II, I/O Interfaces Part III, Analysis Part IV, Network and Interapplication Communicatio... Part V, Advanced G Programming Appendices, Glossary, and Index Conventions Used in This Manual Related Documentation Customer Communication Chapter 1 Introduction What Is LabVIEW? How Does LabVIEW Work? G Programming Organization of the LabVIEW System (Windows) Startup Screen on Windows Organization of the LabVIEW System (Macintosh) Organization of the LabVIEW System (UNIX) Toolkit Support Where Should I Start? Part I Introduction to G Programming Chapter 2 Creating VIs What is a Virtual Instrument? How Do You Build a VI? VI Hierarchy Controls, Constants, and Indicators Terminals Wires Tip Strips Wire Stretching Selecting and Deleting Wires Bad Wires VI Documentation What is a SubVI? Hierarchy Window Search Hierarchy Icon and Connector Opening, Operating, and Changing SubVIs How Do You Debug a VI? Chapter 3 Loops and Charts What is a Structure? Charts Chart Modes Faster Chart Updates Overlaid Versus Stacked Plots While Loops Mechanical Action of Boolean Switches Timing Preventing Code Execution in the First Iteration Shift Registers Using Uninitialized Shift Registers For Loops Numeric Conversion Chapter 4 Case and Sequence Structures and the Formula Node Case Structure VI Logic Sequence Structures Modifying the Numeric Format Setting the Data Range Formula Node Artificial Data Dependency Chapter 5 Arrays, Clusters, and Graphs Arrays How Do You Create and Initialize Arrays? Array Controls, Constants, and Indicators AutoIndexing Multiplot Graphs Using Auto-Indexing to Set the For Loop Count Using Array Functions Build Array Initialize Array Array Size Array Subset Index Array Efficient Memory Usage: Minimizing Data Copies What is Polymorphism? Clusters Graphs Customizing Graphs Graph Cursors Graph Axes Data Acquisition Arrays Intensity Plots Chapter 6 Strings and File I/O Strings Creating String Controls and Indicators Strings and File I/O File I/O File I/O Functions Writing to a Spreadsheet File Using the File I/O Functions Specifying a File Paths and Refnums File I/O Examples Datalog Files Part II I/O Interfaces Chapter 7 Getting Started with a LabVIEW Instrument Driver What is a LabVIEW Instrument Driver? Where Can I Get Instrument Drivers? Where Should I Install My LabVIEW Instrument Drive... How Do I Access the Instrument Driver VIs? Instrument Driver Structure Obtaining Help for Your Instrument Driver VIs Running the Getting Started VI Interactively (Sele... Interactively Testing Component VIs Building Your Application Related Topics Open VISA Session Monitor VI Error Handling Testing Communication with Your Instrument Developing a Quick and Simple LabVIEW InstrumentD... Modifying an Existing Driver Developing a Simple Driver Developing a Full-Featured Driver Using LabVIEW with IVI Instrument Drivers Chapter 8 LabVIEW VISA Tutorial What is VISA? Supported Platforms and Environments Why Use VISA? VISA Is the Standard Interface Independence Platform Independence Easily Adapted to the Future Basic VISA Concepts Default Resource Manager, Session, and Instrument ... How Do I Search for Resources? What is a VISA Class? Popping Up on a VISA Control Opening a Session How Do the Default Resource Manager, Instrument De... Closing a Session When Is It a Good Idea to Leave a Session Open? Error Handling with VISA Easy VISA VIs Message-Based Communication How Do I Write To and Read From a Message-Based De... Register-Based Communication (VXI only) Basic Register Access Basic Register Move Low-Level Access Functions Using VISA to Perform Low-Level Register Accesses Bus Errors Comparison of High-Level and Low-Level Access Speed Ease of Use Accessing Multiple Address Spaces VISA Properties Serial GPIB VXI VISA Property Examples Serial Write and Read How Do I Set a Termination Character foraReadOp... VXI Properties Events GPIB SRQ Events Trigger Events Interrupt Events Locking Shared Locking Platform-Specific Issues Programming Considerations Multiple Applications Using the NI-VISA Driver Multiple Interface Support Issues VXI and GPIB Platforms Multiple GPIB-VXI Support Serial Port Support VME Support Debugging A VISA Program Debugging Tool for Windows 95/NT VISAIC Chapter 9 Introduction to LabVIEW GPIB Functions Types of Messages The Controller-In-Charge and System Controller Compatible GPIB Hardware LabVIEW for Windows 95 and Windows 95-Japanese LabVIEW for Windows NT LabVIEW for Windows 3.1 LabVIEW for Mac OS LabVIEW for HP-UX LabVIEW for Sun LabVIEW for Concurrent PowerMAX Chapter 10 Serial Port VIs Handshaking Modes Software Handshaking—XON/XOFF Error Codes Port Number Windows 95 and 3.x Macintosh UNIX Part III Analysis Chapter 11 Introduction to Analysis in LabVIEW The Importance of Data Analysis Full Development System Analysis VI Overview Notation and Naming Conventions Data Sampling Sampling Signals Sampling Considerations Why Do You Need Anti-Aliasing Filters? Why Use Decibels? Chapter 12 Signal Generation Normalized Frequency Wave and Pattern VIs Phase Control Chapter 13 Digital Signal Processing The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) DFT Calculation Example Magnitude and Phase Information Frequency Spacing between DFT/FFT Samples Fast Fourier Transforms Zero Padding FFT VIs in the Analysis Library Two-Sided FFT One-Sided FFT The Power Spectrum Loss of Phase Information Frequency Spacing between Samples Summary Chapter 14 Smoothing Windows Introduction to Smoothing Windows About Spectral Leakage and Smoothing Windows Windowing Applications Characteristics of Different Types of Window Funct... Rectangular (None) Hanning Hamming Kaiser-Bessel Triangle Flattop Exponential Windows for Spectral Analysis Versus Windows forC... What Type of Window Do I Use? Chapter 15 Spectrum Analysis and Measurement Introduction to Measurement VIs You Will Learn Spectrum Analysis Calculating the Amplitude and Phase Spectrum of a ... Calculating the Frequency Response of a System Harmonic Distortion Total Harmonic Distortion Using the Harmonic Analyzer VI Summary Chapter 16 Filtering Introduction to Digital Filtering Functions Ideal Filters Practical (Nonideal) Filters The Transition Band Passband Ripple and Stopband Attenuation IIR and FIR Filters Filter Coefficients Infinite Impulse Response Filters Cascade Form IIR Filtering Butterworth Filters Chebyshev Filters Chebyshev II or Inverse Chebyshev Filters Elliptic (or Cauer) Filters Bessel Filters Finite Impulse Response Filters Designing FIR Filters by Windowing Designing Optimum FIR Filters Using the Parks-McCl... Designing Narrowband FIR Filters Windowed FIR Filters Optimum FIR Filters FIR Narrowband Filters Nonlinear Filters How Do I Decide Which Filter to Use? Summary Chapter 17 Curve Fitting Introduction to Curve Fitting Applications of Curve Fitting General LS Linear Fit Theory How to Use the General LS Linear Fit VI Building the Observation Matrix Nonlinear Lev-Mar Fit Theory Using the Nonlinear Lev-Mar Fit VI Chapter 18 Linear Algebra Linear Systems and Matrix Analysis Types of Matrices Determinant of a Matrix Transpose of a Matrix Can You Obtain One Vector as a Linear Combination ... How Can You Determine Linear Independence? (Matrix... Magnitude” (Norms) of Matrices Determining Singularity (Condition Number) Basic Matrix Operations and Eigenvalues-Eigenvecto... Dot Product and Outer Product Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors Matrix Inverse and Solving Systems of Linear Equat... Solutions of Systems of Linear Equations Matrix Factorization Pseudoinverse Summary Chapter 19 Probability and Statistics Probability and Statistics Statistics Mean Median Sample Variance Standard Deviation Mode Moment About Mean Histogram Mean Square Error (MSE) Root Mean Square (RMS) Probability Random Variables Normal Distribution Summary Part IV Network and Interapplication Communication Chapter 20 Introduction to Communication LabVIEW Communication Overview Introduction to Communication Protocols File Sharing Versus Communication Protocols Client/Server Model A General Model for a Client A General Model for a Server Chapter 21 TCP and UDP Overview LabVIEW and TCP/IP Internet Addresses Internet Protocol (IP) User Datagram Protocol (UDP) Using UDP Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Using TCP TCP Versus UDP TCP Client Example Timeouts and Errors TCP Server Example TCP Server with Multiple Connections Setup UNIX Macintosh Windows 3.x Windows 95 and Windows NT Chapter 22 ActiveX Support ActiveX Automation Server Functionality ActiveX Server Properties and Methods ActiveX Automation Client Functionality ActiveX Client Examples Converting ActiveX Variant Data to G Data Adding a Workbook to Microsoft Excel from LabVIEW Chapter 23 Using DDE DDE Overview Services, Topics, and Data Items Examples of Client Communication with Excel LabVIEW VIs as DDE Servers Requesting Data Versus Advising Data Synchronization of Data Networked DDE Using NetDDE Chapter 24 AppleEvents AppleEvents Sending AppleEvents Client Server Model AppleEvent Client Examples Launching Other Applications Sending Events to Other Applications Dynamically Loading and Running a VI Chapter 25 Program-to-Program Communication Introduction to PPC Ports, Target IDs, and Sessions PPC Client Example PPC Server Example PPC Server with Multiple Connections Part V Advanced G Programming Chapter 26 Customizing VIs How Do You Customize a VI? Set Window Options SubVI Node Setup Chapter 27 Front Panel Object Attributes Chapter 28 Program Design Use Top-Down Design Make a List of User Requirements Design the VI Hierarchy Create the Program Plan Ahead with Connector Panes SubVIs with Required Inputs Good Diagram Style Watch for Common Operations Use Left-to-Right Layouts Check for Errors Watch Out for Missing Dependencies Avoid Overuse of Sequence Structures Study the Examples Chapter 29 Where to Go from Here Other Useful Resources Solution Wizard and Search Examples Data Acquisition Applications G Programming Techniques Function and VI Reference Resources for Advanced Topics Attribute Nodes VI Setup and Preferences Local and Global Variables Creating SubVIs VI Profiles Control Editor List and Ring Controls Call Library Function Code Interface Nodes Appendix A Analysis References Appendix B Common Questions Communications Common Questions Questions for All Platforms Windows Only Macintosh Only GPIB All Platforms Windows Only Serial I/O All Platforms Windows Only Sun Only Appendix C Customer Communication Electronic Services Telephone and Fax Support Technical Support Form LabVIEW Hardware and Software ConfigurationForm National Instruments Products Other Products Documentation Comment Form Glossary Numbers/Symbols A B C D E-F G H-I L-M N-O P-R S T U-V W Index A B C D E-F G H I J-L M N-P Q R-S T U-V W X-Z Figures Figure 11-1. Analog Signal and Corresponding Sampl... Figure 11-2. Aliasing Effects of an Improper Sampl... Figure 11-3. Actual Signal Frequency Components Figure 11-4. Signal Frequency Components and Alias... Figure 11-5. Effects of Sampling at Different Rate... Figure 14-1. Periodic Waveform Created from Sample... Figure 14-2. Sine Wave and Corresponding Fourier T... Figure 14-3. Spectral Representation When Sampling... Figure 14-4. Time Signal Windowed Using a Hamming ... Figure 22-1. Preferences Dialog Box, Server Config... Figure 22-2. Block Diagram Displaying ActiveX Vari... Figure 22-3. Adding a Workbook to Microsoft Excel Figure 25-1. PPC VI Execution Order (Used by Permi... Tables Table 22-1. Functions for ActiveX Automation Clien... Table 23-1. Values to Add in Place of Default Activities Activity 2-1. Create a VI Activity 2-2. Document a VI Activity 2-3. Create an Icon and Connector Activity 2-4. Call a SubVI Activity 2-5. Debug a VI in LabVIEW Activity 3-1. Experiment with Chart Modes Activity 3-2. Use a While Loop and a Chart Activity 3-3. Change the Mechanical Action of a Boolean Switch Activity 3-4. Control Loop Timing Activity 3-5. Use a Shift Register Activity 3-6. Create a Multiplot Chart Activity 3-7. Use a For Loop Activity 4-1. Use the Case Structure Activity 4-2. Use a Sequence Structure Activity 4-3. Use the Formula Node Activity 5-1. Create an Array with Auto-Indexing Activity 5-2. Use Auto-Indexing on Input Arrays Activity 5-3. Use the Build Array Function Activity 5-4. Use the Graph and Analysis VIs Activity 6-1. Concatenate a String Activity 6-2. Use Format Strings Activity 6-3. String Subsets and Number Extraction Activity 6-4. Write to a Spreadsheet File Activity 6-5. Append Data to a File Activity 6-6. Read Data from a File Activity 12-1. Learn More about Normalized Frequency Activity 12-2. Use the Sine Wave and Sine Pattern VIs Activity 12-3. Build a Function Generator Activity 13-1. Use the Real FFT VI Activity 14-1. Compare a Windowed and Nonwindowed Signal Activity 15-1. Use the Amplitude and Phase Spectrum VI Activity 15-2. Compute the Frequency and Impulse Response Activity 15-3. Calculate Harmonic Distortion Activity 16-1. Extract a Sine Wave Activity 17-1. Use the Curve Fitting VIs Activity 17-2. Use the General LS Linear Fit VI Activity 17-3. Use the Nonlinear Lev-Mar Fit VI Activity 18-1. Compute the Inverse of a Matrix Activity 18-2. Solve a System of Linear Equations Activity 19-1. Use the Normal Distribution VI Activity 26-1. Use Setup Options for a SubVI Activity 27-1. Use an Attribute Node