These are some of the materials I created when teaching the LabVIEW portion of Electronics II. I may eventually post the full tutorial, but it needs more work before making it public.

Introduction

LabVIEW is a popular application for controlling and collecting data from laboratory equipment. LabVIEW is useful for automating experiments. While it performs many operations of a programing language, it isn't a programming language. LabVIEW uses its own visual interface to create programs. The first step to learning LabVIEW is to forget how to program. LabVIEW does many things in odd ways. Features often have unexpected names. Even if you recognize a name from a programing language, check the manual because it may behave in a strange way. When first learning LabVIEW it is easy to waste time because of odd orders of execution and data type problems. You should be aware that LabVIEW is a data-flow system, not a programing language. When `programming,' you are actually just defining where data goes, not controlling a program.

In LabVIEW, you don't program, you wire virtual instruments. At a basic level, using LabVIEW is like setting up a stereo system. The Front Panel is the front of your components and the Block Diagram is the rear. You connect wires in the back, but control the stereo with the front panel. you have to make sure to use the correct type of wire for each port.

Find goal

Finds a goal value by looping through changes in a parameter. Demonstrates subprograms, while loops, case structures, and logic tests.

Range array

Generates an array using minimum, maximum and the total number of steps. If you input:

min = 10
max = 20
steps = 11

the output will be the array {10,11,12,...,20}

File input/output and frames

Opens a text file, reads data, modifies data, and writes the output to a second file. Demonstrates for and for each loops. Uses frames to make sure the files are opened as the first step. The input file is a tab delimited text file, the output is a comma delimited text file.