LabVIEW Programming, Part IV

Concept of data acquisition

LabVIEW NI-DAQmx driver
Data acquisition application using
LabVIEW.

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Data Acquisition System

The typical data acquisition system consists of sensors,

signal conditioning, data acquisition hardware, computer
and related software.
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Signal Conditioning Inputs

Low-level voltage signals (0100 mV)
High voltage signals (101,000 V)
Sensors
Thermocouples
RTDs
Strain Gauges
Pressure Sensors
Accelerometers
Load Cells
LVDTs/ RVDTs
Resolvers

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Signal Conditioning Units

Front-End Signal Conditioning

SCC

SCXI

Integrated Signal Conditioning

PXI Instruments

SC Series

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FieldPoint
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Sampling Rates and Update Rates

Undersampling may result in the misrepresentation

of the measured signal (aliasing).
After a signal is aliased, it is impossible to
reconstruct the original signal.
Sample at least twice as fast as the highest
frequency signal being measured.

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Nyquist Frequency
In order to recover all frequency
components of a waveform, it is necessary
to sample more than twice as fast as the
highest waveform frequency.
In practice, the sampling frequency should
be at least 5 to 10 times of the highest
waveform frequency.

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Data Acquisition Hardware

Number of Channels
Sampling Rate
Resolution
Range

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NI Multifunction DAQ
16 or 64 analog input
channels
Eight or 32 DIO lines
Dual analog outputs
Dual 24-bit counters
RTSI bus for multidevice synchronization

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Use Lowpass Filters to Remove Noise

Lowpass
Filter
Time Domain

Time Domain
Lowpass
Filter

Frequency Domain

Frequency Domain

Removes noise
Blocks unwanted frequencies
Prevents aliasing
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Resolution
Number of bits analog-to-digital converter (ADC) uses to represent a signal
Higher resolutionDetect smaller voltage changes
16-Bit versus 3-Bit Resolution
(5 kHz Sine Wave)

10.00
8.75

111

7.50

110

6.25

101

Amplitude 5.00
(Volts)

100

3.75

011

2.50

010

1.25

001

000
|

50

16-bit
3-bit

100

Time (ms)

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150

200

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16-Bit versus 12-Bit Measurements

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Optimize Resolution with Amplification

Amplifier
Optimizes Resolution over the Range of the Measurement

16-bit
Digitizer
10 mV
signal

32 levels
of resolution

16-bit
Digitizer
10 V
signal

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65,536 levels
of resolution

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NI Data Acquisition Framework

LabVIEW

NI-DAQmx

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Definitions in NI-DAQmx
Physical channel
A physical channel is a terminal or pin at which an
analog or digital signal is measured or generated.

Virtual channel
A virtual channel is a collection of property settings
that can include a name, a physical channel, input
terminal connections, the type of measurement or
generation, and scaling information.

Task
A task in NI-DAQmx is a collection of one or more
virtual channels with timing, triggering, and other
properties.
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NI-DAQmx Assistant

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NI-DAQmx VI

Core Polymorphic VIs

NI-DAQmx Task and
Channel Constants
DAQ Assistant

Property Nodes
Advanced Utility
Functions

NI-DAQmx Create Virtual Channel VI

The NI-DAQmx Create Virtual Channel function creates a

virtual channel and adds it to a task. It can also be used to
create multiple virtual channels and add all of them to a task.
If a task is not specified, the function creates a task.
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NI-DAQmx Create Virtual Channel VI

Examples of instances of NI-DAQmx create virtual channel VI

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NI-DAQmx Timing VI

The NI-DAQmx Timing function configures the timing for

hardware-timed data acquisition operations. This includes
specifying whether the operation will be continuous or finite
and selecting the number of samples to acquire or generate
for finite operations.
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NI-DAQmx Trigger VI

The NI-DAQmx Trigger function configures a trigger to

perform a specific action.

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Analog Triggering
Acquired Signal

Input Signal

Trigger threshold
Trigger Signal

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Digital Triggering
Acquired Signal

Input Signal

Trigger Signal

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NI-DAQmx Start VI

The NI-DAQmx Start Task function explicitly transitions a

task to the running state.

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NI-DAQmx Read VI

The NI-DAQmx Read function reads samples from the

specified acquisition task.

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NI-DAQmx Read VI

Four examples of the different instances of the NI-DAQmx

Read VI.

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NI-DAQmx Clear VI

The NI-DAQmx Clear Task function clears the specified

task. If the task is currently running, the function first
stops the task and then releases all of its resources.

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Example

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