Editing existing VI to output continuous wave

[HarryG1992]

For part of a university project I am using LabVIEW to trigger a picoscope function generator. I have never used LabVIEW before and was provided with an existing VI which I have not yet had to edit, however the person who gave me this is no longer at my university for me to contact for help.

A late change to the project means that I now I require a continuous sine wave rather than a pulsed wave to be generated and I do not know how to implement this change.

I have tried to edit the block diagram however my zero experience of LabVIEW has meant I have made no progress and time is becoming critical. Please excuse my ignorance as I'm sure it's a simple solution that I am missing, any help would be greatly appreciated.

[GerdW]

Hi Harry,

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@HarryG1992 wrote:

I require a continuous sine wave rather than a pulsed wave to be generated and I do not know how to implement this change.

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Unfortunately all subVIs are missing for me as I don't use the PicoScope, but from what I see there is no function to generate a signal. The scope reads "real world" signals and you can display them on the frontpanel!

When you need a sine wave then your function generator must be changed, but not the scope…

Maybe that unspecified "RITEC" device needs more/other parameters?

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@HarryG1992 wrote:

For part of a university project

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Is there nobody at your university being able to use LabVIEW and to help you with your problem? That would be much easier with your whole setup available for testing/debugging!

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@HarryG1992 wrote:

Please excuse my ignorance …

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You are saving your data into a folder named "\4th year\dissertation" so I hope you know how to proceed with engineering problems. Atleast you should in the 4th year…

Btw. you really should avoid such Rube-Goldbergs:

if Stop? <> TRUE then TRUE else FALSE

That's usually called a NOT! (And reduces to a NOP when the cases in the case structure are swapped…)

[JCroese]

Hi Harry,

I currently can not open your VI as I'm on a machine with LabVIEW 2017. But I have worked with LabVIEW and Picoscopes before. 

If you check the programmers guide for your PicoScope model.  (I think it should be this one given the name of your VI but check for yourself on the Picotech website) it describes all the functions in the API including the one to set the function generator.

Some where in your block diagram (this might be nested in a subVI) there will be a Call Library Function Node that calls the function that setups the function generator of the PicoScope (e.g. "ps5000aSetSigGenBuiltIn" as described on page 84 on the 5000 series picoscope programmers guide from the first link.)

One of the input terminals of this Call Library Function Node will have a (variable/pointer) name that includes something like "Wave type" (e.g. PS5000A_WAVE_TYPE as described in the linked programmers guide) follow the wire of this terminal to the constant/control that it's connected to and set it to the right value described in the API to make the function generator output a sign wave (e.g. PS5000A_SINE)

and off course check if the rest of the variable for the functions as described in the API are set the specifications you need.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Jared

if you upload your VI saved for an older version more people can have a look at it.