Questions about Labview capabilities

[TripleAntigen]

Hi am just beginning Labview investigation in conjunction with a new test rig we are creating to test industrial control products. We want to create a universal test dock that provides power and commonly used signals so that we can test multiple product types. The dock will communicate to a PC running labview and receive test signals via a DAQ box / boxes of some kind.

We want to create for each product type, a platform PCB with a socket to hold the device under test, in such a way that the PCB plugs into the dock and routes all the required test signals from the dock to the DUT without having to wire them by hand. I would like to do the following in Labview:

- We want to be able to detect the type of PCB plugged into the dock by monitoring a pin that changes state. When the transition is detected, we need to read an identity code from the PCB and start up the right test program in Labview for the device under test. Is Labview able to respond to an interrupt or poll a signal from a DAQ in the dock, and automatically spin up a given test program?

- If the PCB contains say two independent DUTs, it would be nice to have two test programs start up so that each takes up half the screen. And if there are four DUTs, to spawn four independent test programs that divide the screen in 4, etc. Is Labview capable of running multiple independent test program instances simultaneously like this? Can I programmatically get them to arrange themselves as described? Would they be able to share the same hardware at the same time?

- Will the basic Labview do these things, or will I need some kind of addon?

Thanks for any comments!

[TroyK · Accepted solution]

Is Labview able to respond to an interrupt or poll a signal from a DAQ in the dock, and automatically spin up a given test program? YES

Is Labview capable of running multiple independent test program instances simultaneously like this? YES

Can I programmatically get them to arrange themselves as described? YES

Would they be able to share the same hardware at the same time? Ooh, tricky one, maybe. Depends on the hardware and what exactly you're trying to do and how the program is written.

Will the basic Labview do these things, or will I need some kind of addon?  YES, the base version can do what you've described... but... you won't be able to create a stand alone application with the base version. You'll have to run it in the development environment. There is heaps you can do with the base version.

Have a look at the different development versions to see what functions are added in FULL and PRO editions.

http://www.ni.com/labview/buy/

http://sine.ni.com/labview-hmc/app/pages/required_questions.xhtml

[Dennis_Knutson]

Another thing to consider along with LabVIEW would be TestStand. It is a test executive that incorporates LabVIEW (or code from many other languages) and does the report generation, limit checking, database logging, and provides individual or parallel testing.

[TripleAntigen]

Great thanks for the information!