Most Imaginative / Craziest / Interesting Thing You've Done With LabVIEW

[Philip_Courtois]

We know that LabVIEW is being used in an abundance of situations to perform all kinds of functionality.

Now it’s time that we specifically want to hear about your most imaginative / craziest / interesting thing you have ever done with LabVIEW. We want to see how far from "the ordinary application" it’s possible to take LabVIEW.

Please submit any descriptions, VIs, screenshots, links, etc.

This will be a fun thread - thanks in advance!

Message Edited by Philip C. on 01-10-2006 11:57 AM

[WNM]

Back in the early 90's I learned LabVIEW so I could use it to instrument and control this thing.

Some two dozen tests were run with it before the funding was cut.

[Wes_Ramm1]

I used LV 3.1 to automate an experimental apparatus aboard NASA's DC-9 Vomit Comet out of NASA Lewis in 1992.  As far as we know we had the world's first weightless LV program.  The program did data acquisition and data logging to disk and fully automated the entire experiment while we were free to float around weightless.  It was cool. The experiment was called Ignition and Combustion of Metals (ICOM), and was meant to assess the feasibility of creating rocket fuel in-situ on Mars.  The idea was that if you could make fuel on the planet, then you wouldn't have to carry all that weight _with_ you in the first place.  You could land, set up your rocket fuel apparatus, and wait until you had enough fuel to get back to Earth.  We were igniting bulk Titanium, Copper and Magnesium basically with a lamp and a magnifying glass in a pure-oxygen reactor.  The coolest project I have ever worked on.

Wes

Message Edited by Wes Ramm on 01-10-2006 04:20 PM

[mfitzsimons]

I use LabVIEW to test Slot Machines used in Casino Based Gaming.  It is a mix of high-end vision analysis, button pressing, and several stand alone LabVIEW based device simulators all connected together using TCP communication.  It plays the slot machine just like anyone would play a gaming machine: inserts money, places a bet, spins the reels, and hope that it will win some money. 

I use NI Vision to analyze the display of the gaming device.  Read the reel symbols displayed, how much it paid, and how much money remains on the gaming machine.  All the results are recorded to Excel compatible files and images are only saved it there is a possible issue for latter review by a game tested.  It is truly like having a game tester in a standard Windows PC running XP.  Certainly a bit more interesting than making DC voltage measurements on a power supply. 

[tbob]

Show me how to write a Labview program that will make me win the jackpot!

[mfitzsimons]

It is a known fact that the best way to win is not to play.  Guaranteed 100% payback every time.  Now the truth is there is no system, technique, or real skill to be learned to win at a slot machines.  EVERY pull has the same chance of winning or loosing as the last game with a free running random number generator providing the outcomes.  It has no memory of previous games so there is no such thing as a machine that is, "about to hit". 

This I think is a the appeal of a slot machine being that anyone can win or loose based on luck in a given day and have fun playing them.  The percent to payback is configured by the casino operator and they don't set them too tight because they want people to have fun while they are playing them.

I hope this clears the air about slot machines,

Matt

[RobCole]

To bring up an interesting / different program that I wrote (a FEW years ago):

In an attempt to learn how to do networking with LabVIEW, I built a BattleShips program. It would attempt to start a game with anyone else who started the program. So, you didn't know who you were going to play against when starting the program.

So then we tried to turn it into a real-time, multiplayer, interactive version. With players moving their ships around in the seas and blasting away at the other players. And, for the most part, it worked.

Not your usual "LabVIEW" type of program.

[Ben]

My N-Scale model railroad is controlled using a LV program.

I reveal all in the the "model Railroading" thread.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=183&jump=true

Ben

[vivi]

Robert.
If you hav it laying around could you give me a copy of your battleship game, i would like to see how you did it

[RobCole]

Unfortunately, that was at a different company and I do not have a copy of it anymore.

We seriously cheated on the program startup. The program would look in a specific directory on a server (configurable of course) and see if there was a file there. If there was a file there, it contained the IP address and port of a "host" computer. If the file was not found then the program would create one and become the host. In the 2 player version, the file would be immediately deleted. At least we had the game play via network.

The multi-player would query the host and get told what port to play on. Each computer had its own port to talk to the host. When the game was full (or the user on the host pressed "Start"), the file would be deleted.

     Rob