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LabVIEW Instrument Control Course Overview

The LabVIEW Instrument Control Course explores the basics of instrument control and teach you how to use, modify, and develop instrument drivers for programmatically controlling instruments in LabVIEW. You will learn about the benefits of instrument control, explore industry applications, and gain an in depth understanding of how LabVIEW can be used to communicate with instruments. Additionally, you will learn how to efficiently modify an instrument driver and create new instrument drivers. 

 

Upon completion of the course, you can apply best practices in LabVIEW to communicate with instruments.  

Course Details:

Duration

  • Instructor-led Classroom: Two (2) days

Audience

  • Application developers using LabVIEW to control computer-based instruments using GPIB, serial, or other communication protocol

Prerequisites

  • Experience with Microsoft Windows

  • LabVIEW Core 1 Course or equivalent experience

NI Products Used

  • LabVIEW 

  • GPIB (IEEE 488) Controller

  • Instrument Simulator

After attending this course, you will be able to:

  • Use LabVIEW to communicate with instruments

  • Program with VISA, VISA properties, and VISA events 

  • Parse data 

  • Use instrument drivers 

  • Modify an existing instrument driver 

  • Design, develop, test, and deploy a new instrument driver

  • Create an effective and efficient instrument control application 

LabVIEW Instrument Control Course Outline

Lesson Overview Topics
Industry Applications This lesson introduces the benefits of instrument control and shows industry applications using instrument control.

  • Introduction to instrument control 

  • Benefits of instrument control 

  • Instrument control example 

  • Industry applications using instrument control
Communicating with Instruments This lesson describes how you can use LabVIEW to communicate with instruments.  You will learn how to use NI-VISA, NI Spy, SCPI commands, and the Instrument I/O Assistant to perform instrument I/O.

  • Comparing instrument buses 

  • Connecting to instruments 

  • Monitoring bus activity 

  • Communicating with your instrument using the VISA API  

  • Parsing data 

  • Using the Instrument I/O Assistant
Using Instrument Drivers This lesson introduces LabVIEW plug and play instrument drivers. You will learn when to use instrument drivers, how to install instrument drivers, and how to program with instrument drivers.

  • Introduction to instrument drivers 

  • When to use instrument drivers 

  • Installing an instrument driver 

  • Using an instrument driver
Modifying an Existing Instrument Driver If an instrument driver is lacking a feature you need, you will need to modify it. This lesson describes how to modify an existing instrument driver.

  • When to modify an instrument driver 

  • Exploring the structure of an instrument driver 

  • Steps to modify an instrument driver
Creating a New Instrument Driver Sometimes you have an instrument that does not have an instrument driver. This lesson describes how to create a new instrument driver. 

  • Designing an instrument driver structure 

  • Developing an instrument driver 

  • Testing an instrument driver 

  • Deploying an instrument driver
Developing an Application This lesson describes how to develop effective and efficient instrument control applications. You will integrate the lessons learned in this class to develop a real world, automated application.

  • Exploring and applying common, effective LabVIEW architectures for instrument applications 

  • Applying best practices in LabVIEW as it relates to instrument control applications. 

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