simulate strain gauge

[DarkMarc86]

Hi everyone, I am currently developing a data acquisition program to measure about 50 strain gauges simulatniously using LabVIEW version 8. At the moment I only have one strain gauge so I would like to simulate the others. I am using the DAQ-MX functions and I am connecting the strain gauges through seven SCXI-1520 cards mounted into a SCXI-1001 box. I don't always have access to the hardware, so I have simulated this hardware setup in MAX but I have been unable to simulate input signals into the simulated hardware to test out my LabVIEW program. I have tried using test panels within MAX to generate an input signal, but when I try to run my program it complains that 'the specific resource is reserved.' Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks in advance.

Message Edited by DarkMarc86 on 04-16-2009 12:19 AM

[DarkMarc86]

I forgot to mention, I have tried inputting the analog signal into both the SCXI-1520 and the DAQCard-6036E to no avail. Using the DAQCard-6036E card, the program complains about "device to which the sensor is attached does not have an avaliable internal excitation source."

[DarkMarc86]

In case what I'v said isn't very clear, I have used a prodedure similar to the one outlined here:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3698

Except that I am measuring strain and not voltage.

[aNIta B]

Hi Dark,

           From the devzone article you linked to "Note: NI-DAQmx simulated devices create a noisy sine wave for all analog input channels. Configuration of other simulated data is not available at this time." This means when you're using a simulated device, you don't specify an input signal- you should be seeing a noisy sine wave on all channels. Also,you won't be able to use a test panel to the device and then read from it in LabVIEW at the same time.