Newbie Question

[ProtoGuy]

Super basic question: will FlexLogger be the simplest way to do this:

I have three solenoid-operated valves that I need to sequentially open and close for thousands of cycles. I'm trying to simulate service life and wear. Each valve has an open and close limit switch to signal position.

Three solenoid valves, six limit switches, all discrete on/off signals

For each valve I also need to capture a liquid flow rate and pressure. 

Four pressure sensors, three flow meters, one temperature sensor. These signals are all 4-20mA analog.

The test system looks like this:

Sequence

Valve A Valve B Valve C
1 Open Open Open
2 Close Open Open
3 Open Open Open
4 Open Close Open
5 Open Open Open
6 Open Open Close
REPEAT LOOP

Timer changes state every 30 seconds

Measure time between CLOSE signal and state change of OPEN limit switches > Measures response time of cylinder to CLOSE
Measure time between CLOSE signal and state change of CLOSE limit switches . Measure total cycle time OPEN to CLOSE
Measure time between state change of OPEN and state change of CLOSE limit switches > Measure stroke time OPEN to CLOSE
Measure time between OPEN signal and state change of CLOSE limit switches > Measures response time of cylinder to OPEN
Measure time between OPEN signal and state change of OPEN limit switches > Measure total cycle time CLOSE to OPEN
Measure time between state change of CLOSE and state change of OPEN limit switches > Measure stroke time CLOSE to OPEN
Capture flow rate for all three loops at end of each step
Capture line pressure on all three loops at end of each step
Capture temperature at every completed loop
Capture municipal water pressure

All data to Excel spreadsheet

My concept is to use  these items:

Flexlogger software
NI-9208 4-20mA Input Module
USB-6525 Digital Input Module
NI-9482 Relay Module

Does this look like a reasonable path and components? I'm not a programmer, and need to make this as simple as possible.

Thanks for your help

[Brad]

Great question! With the help of a simple sequence plugin you can achieve alot of what you're asking for. Here's a link to where you can get the sequencing plugin:
https://forums.ni.com/t5/FlexLogger/loop-repeat-of-a-test-sequence/td-p/4336228

There isn't a good way to measure the time difference between signals, especially if they are output signals since FlexLogger only logs input data to disk and lets you route input signals to other plugins. A work around for this is to use the attached "Digital Output Handler" plugin. This will allow you to have a variable number of digital output lines with looped back input lines that can be logged to disk, and used to control digital output HW lines. To measure the time between state changes and digital output lines responding, the easiesdt way would be to look at the resulting CSV file and see when the lines of interest changed values (i.e. post-processing). I believe most digital output lines only have an update rate of about 10Hz in FlexLogger, so the accuracy won't be great, but hopefully between these two plugins you can solve your problem. Also if you want more CSV formatting options than the default ones built-in to FlexLogger, you can check out this plugin:
https://forums.ni.com/t5/FlexLogger/Changing-Time-Logs/m-p/4395317#M878