Appendix D Example Applications
LabVIEW is used in thousands of situations worldwide. You can go to www.ni.com and see all the example applications you want through NI’s Customer Applications link.
Following are a few LabVIEW projects I’ve done personally, and I’m saying just enough not to violate any NDAs.
1. LabVIEW is used to measure the force on materials as they are being pulled apart on a five station stress/strain machine. Force and position is recorded at 100 Hz during the tests, which may last hours. The data is displayed graphically during the test, and logged to disk throughout.
2. LabVIEW is used in a semiconductor-manufacturing environment to log data from gas purity detection equipment, as well as MFCs (mass flow controllers) throughout the plant. The MFCs detect the flow rate of gasses and are placed hundreds of feet apart, so 4-20 mA signals are sent to SCXI equipment. Inside three computers are eight-port RS-232 boards, each of which is connected to very high-dollar purity devices, some of which can detect particles, others moisture, and others oxygen. Three computers are placed hundreds of feet apart and communicate all information to a series of other computers via Ethernet, using simple file I/O, nothing TCP/IP-specific. The system runs 24/7, and all data is 1 Hz except particle data, which takes about a minute to measure due to the equipment. This was not an overnight project!
3. LabVIEW collects data from multiple gamma radiation detectors, using memory-mapped data rather than NI DAQ devices, at 100 Hz, recording and displaying continuously how strong the radiation is at a variety of frequencies. I wish I could say why—it is a neat idea.
4. LabVIEW simultaneously tests 32 network-monitoring devices that have both serial and Ethernet connections. The Internet Connectivity Toolkit was needed for this one. A series of about 20 functional tests runs, which takes about 20 minutes. These are very nice devices with very diverse functionality, so we must make sure that all the parts work.
5. LabVIEW tests 20 pressure transducers at a time, white they are all placed inside a temperature-controlled chamber and taken to all sorts of temperatures, from freezing to hotter than Texas, white data is being recorded and displayed.
6. Same as item 5, but for batteries and motors that go inside airplanes, thus the test had a much wider temperature range. Airplanes get really cold up there, like -40°.
7. Monitor and control an Instron stress/strain machine. Instron’s machines currently use a GPIB interface.
8. Very large objects are placed on a rocket sled, accelerated to insane speed, then crashed into a wall. Data is being recorded and displayed throughout this process. I am dying to go into detail, but I would be violating an NDA, which could possibly lead to my being used as a test object in this project.