LabVIEW

Drivers for LabVIEW

  • Supports LabVIEW for Windows from version 6i
  • Easy to update as based on standard instrument Windows driver
  • Free updates for product lifetime

LabVIEW drivers are available as a cost-option for the entire Strategic Test Digitizer, Arbitrary Waveform Generator and high-speed Digital I/O boards. They are supplied with a printed manual and examples that you can use as the basis for your own project.

The driver allows you to access all of the hardware features of the board, including the wide variety of triggering possibilities and the additional options that may be available for the specific card that includes ABA Mode, Multiple Recording, Gated Sampling, Time Stamp, Synchronous Digital Inputs or Outputs and the Extra I/O option. Multiple card synchronization through the Star Hub or Cascaded Synchronization options is also supported.

LabVIEW for the PCI Express and PCI-X instrument cards

With the introduction of the UF2 series of PCI-X cards in 2006, the LabVIEW driver was completely redesigned to match the new Windows drivers for this family. As the UF2e series of PCI Express cards released in 2007 use the same Windows drivers, these also benefit from the new LabVIEW driver.

During the process, special attention was made to make the use of the LabVIEW driver easier. The libraries consist of dedicated VIs grouping card functions for easy access. Besides this, a powerful library is included implementing time consuming functions like data sorting or recalculation of digital values to analog voltage levels for fast applications.

The LabVIEW driver is supplied together with a suite of ready-made LabVIEW applications that can be adapted for your own use. The examples include:

  • Oscilloscope
  • Date recorder with on-line display
  • Hard disk streaming utility
  • Signal generator
  • Additional examples for special options like Multiple Recording or Timestamp
  • Complex trigger examples

In addition to the libraries delivered with the drivers, all driver functions can also be directly called giving complete access to all the card features.

A great deal of development effort went into increasing the streaming speed under LabVIEW. So now, like the Windows and Linux drivers, you can also use LabVIEW to stream data between the card and host PC when you need to record or generate longer signals that the onboard instrument memory. The speed is determined by the host PC and the bus speed. In general, the PCI-X (UF2 cards) can stream at up to 200 MBytes/s, while the PCI Express cards are limited to around 100 to 120 MBytes/s. This assumes that LabVIEW is only recording the data and is not doing calculations or making displays at the same time.

The LabVIEW drivers work with National Instruments LabVIEW for Windows version 6i and later. Please note that LabVIEW under Linux is not supported.

LabVIEW for the PXI and CompactPCI instrument cards

Like the driver above, the LabVIEW driver for the PXI and CompactPCI cards is based on the corresponding Windows instrument driver for these instruments. This has the advantage that updates to the Windows driver are reflected in the LabVIEW driver.

The connection between the Windows driver and LabVIEW is the link library supplied with the LabVIEW driver. This file integrates the Windows driver function as VI’s for easy use within LabVIEW. The following VI's are included:

  • Board Init: Initialises the PCI board and the software driver. The setup data of the board can be read out.
  • Board Settings: Converts the numerical input into a cluster of I16 and I32 values. The inputs may be fed from controls or from constants.
  • Board Set: All parameters will be set in a loop. The supplied parameters will be checked.
  • Board Start: Starts the recording or generation of the data.
  • Board Stop: Aborts the recording or generation process.
  • Board Status: Reads out status of the board.
  • Board Read: Reads data from the board. The data will be converted in an array of double values including the correct voltage value corresponding to the selected input range

The LabVIEW driver is supplied with a printed manual and examples that can be adapted by the user for their own project.