Here is a nice little custom control to make LabVIEW more like your iPhone. Download: iPhone_Switch.zip

The Challenge The customer needed a system to control a complicated process to create compounds used in PET scanning. The system controls fluid flow for the product as well as for cooling the system during the production cycle. Solution We created a system consisting of an NI Compact RIO Real-time embedded controller and multiple thin-client touch screen PC’s running XP Embedded for monitoring and control. The system features include: User-configurable modular GUI Scripting system for user-programmable control Secure user access Dual coordinated control stations CRIO provides real-time control for critical operations and interlocks Software monitors product inventory and alerts operator when low Technical Details This system was created using National Instruments Compact RIO ...

The Challenge The customer had a need to analyze the performance of a product to enhance vascular surgical technique. The necessary life cycle is, by design, quit lengthy, making it difficult to observe accurately by hand. They needed to automate the system to closely monitor a set of sample vessels. The system is capable of simulating a variety of physiological conditions to provide stresses on the samples. Unlike a human observer, the system is able to watch the entire process for days at a time and observe the very precise time and conditions of failure. Solution We created a system consisting of a LabVIEW ...

The Challenge The customer needed a system to evaluate a new technique of using and adhesive to assist in attaching tendon to bone. Operating under repeated stress of motion, the customer wished to capture the strength of the connection, looking for the failure point of the adhesive. The customer was also interested in what happened with the adhesive joint leading up to the breakaway point. Solution We created a system consisting of a FireWire camera and a data acquisition card to monitor the movement of the stress inducer. The software was written with LabVIEW™ and NI IMAQ Vision. A special fiducial marker was used as ...

The Challenge There are government standards that must be met to keep ensure that the stripes on the roadways are visible to help prevent accidents. The customer needed a system to measure and analyze the retroreflectivity of the stripes at driving speed. The system also needed to collect GPS data and record video of the entire process with data overlaid. The laser scanner hardware already existed from an outdated DOS-based system. The hardware worked but the customer needed a total rewrite of the software to move to Windows and add new features. Solution We created a system of three interconnected computers that work together to ...

At the July user group, Ludwik Kordas presented the concept of a Circular Buffer (CB) and various ways to implement it in LabVIEW. His presentation and example VI’s are included in this post.

A VIG or “functional global” is a LabVIEW VI that provides the features of a global variable while overcoming some of the down sides of an actual global variable. A function global uses uninitialized shift registers to maintain state information and a typedef function to select the mode of operation. This example implements a stopwatch timer. You can use it to time up to 16 independent events in your application. For more information on functional globals, check out these links: Basic Functional Global Example Functional Global Flags to Protect a Shared Resource Other “functional global” examples in NI Developer Zone Download the Code here: Stopwatch LV2009 Stopwatch LV61

A cool contraption, a bunch of geeks, and pizza. What more could you want?

There was a lot of interest at our last group meeting about NI certification tests. The Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (CLAD) is the first step in getting certified. The test shows knowledge of LabVIEW basics. If you have had the LabVIEW Basics class (now called Core 1) or if you have some real-life experience with LabVIEW, you might be ready. If you want to find out, there are some sample tests you can download from NI’s web site: clad_sample_exam1.pdf clad_sample_exam2.pdf Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (CLAD) Sample Exams How Can I Prepare for the Certified LabVIEW Associate Developer (CLAD) Exam?

There was some discussion during the Popcorn Tweets demonstration about where the interest in the device came from. Although people from all over the world watched the video, Justin was surprised that a lot of the interest came from Brazil. Another member of our group Andrés, who is from Brazil, said that popcorn is a big deal there…and he has provided photographic evidence, a street vendor in São Paulo: