Any LabVIEW programmers here?

[ByF]

I'm just curious--I just took a LabVIEW class about a month ago, and I'm preparing for the CLAD exam in a week.

Ed

[fdeck]

I did quite a lot with LabView in the mid 90's.

[ByF]

Originally Posted by fdeck

I did quite a lot with LabView in the mid 90's.

What kind of stuff were you doing, if I may ask?

I build test equipment for optical systems, and use LV to control motion stages and read detectors, mostly via GPIB. Or that's what I will do if I ever get good at this. Up to now, I have built the equipment and then hired someone to do the coding to make it all play together.

About a year ago, I ordered a LabVIEW package for one of the programmers. I was going downstairs with the box under my arm to give it to the guy, and I got two job offers between the third floor and the basement. Like "You do LabVIEW? I've got a job I need done!" I thought, Hmm, maybe I should be learning LabVIEW, so I could accept these jobs.

Seems like a useful tool, anyhow.

Ed

[hover]

I use LabView every day at work. Not from a programming perspective, but the interface is nice and intuitive and I can change parameters easily.

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by ByF

What kind of stuff were you doing, if I may ask?

I build test equipment for optical systems, and use LV to control motion stages and read detectors, mostly via GPIB. Or that's what I will do if I ever get good at this. Up to now, I have built the equipment and then hired someone to do the coding to make it all play together.

About a year ago, I ordered a LabVIEW package for one of the programmers. I was going downstairs with the box under my arm to give it to the guy, and I got two job offers between the third floor and the basement. Like "You do LabVIEW? I've got a job I need done!" I thought, Hmm, maybe I should be learning LabVIEW, so I could accept these jobs.

Seems like a useful tool, anyhow.

Ed

What a coincidence. I do a lot of similar things. I work for a company that manufactures spectroscopy instruments for chemical analysis, and I am one of our two optical engineers.

After learning LabView, for whatever random reasons, I jumped on the Visual Basic bandwagon, and then I changed jobs. So for many years, I have been doing most of my test work with VB. Also, I have developed my own small motion controllers and data acquisition hardware. So I have some tools that are practically cheap enough to give away, and quick to deploy. However, this is something that I would say "works for me" but is not necessarily what I would recommend to anybody else.

Over the past couple years, I have moved into more of an engineering management role, and none of the systems engineers who work for me are heavy duty programmers. So I would like them to gain some self sufficiency in data acquisition, and LV might be a better route. One of my engineers uses it for the realtime video image analysis stuff. He's a really bright optical engineer. The others come from more of an electronics background, and I have been prodding them to attend the free LabView training sessions that come through town once in a while.

[ByF]

fdeck,

Thanks for the reply. I'm not an optical engineer; my background is in metrology and I've specialized in optical alignment for the last couple of decades. Started out doing a lot of theodolite, autocollimator, and alignment telescope work, but there is less demand for those traditional instruments these days. But knowing how to do those things translated into a job building optical ground support equipment for flight instruments. The last spectrometer I worked on is in low earth orbit.

If you want to encourage your engineers to look into LV, National Instruments has a ton of useful information on their web site--tutuorials, white papers, user forums, etc.. You can get a free full version of LV2009 that will run for 30 days, which can be installed on an unlimited number of computers.

Hey, I read your review of the GK Backline on your web site. Good stuff. Bass Player magazine needs you, instead of the guys who get all ecstatic over "glassy highs" and "transparent mids."

Ed

[ByF]

Originally Posted by hover

I use LabView every day at work. Not from a programming perspective, but the interface is nice and intuitive and I can change parameters easily.

Hover,

If the interface is nice and intuitive, you should thank the programmer. LV makes it easy to create a nice user interface--but it's not automatic. There is an art to making it that way!

What are you using LV for, if you can tell me?

Ed

[hover]

Originally Posted by ByF

Hover,

If the interface is nice and intuitive, you should thank the programmer. LV makes it easy to create a nice user interface--but it's not automatic. There is an art to making it that way!

What are you using LV for, if you can tell me?

Ed

Yes indeed. I had a hand in the design... but VERY thankful to the programmer as well. Let's just say LV is used to control many many stepper motor controllers used in the manufacture of proprietary scientific extrusions.

[ByF]

Originally Posted by hover

Let's just say LV is used to control many many stepper motor controllers used in the manufacture of proprietary scientific extrusions.

Proprietary scientific extrusions. . . hmm. I'm trying to imagine what that might be. . .

Ed

[derelicte]

i did my senior project in Labview.. crunched a 30 lead eeg signal thru filters n neuronets to determine spatial coordinates of interictal spike epicenters. B+ -__-;;