Programming a nonprogrammable power supply with LabVIEW + additional hardware

[nprice2012]

My company is interested in using LabVIEW to automate a nonprogrammable DC power supply. The actual instrument in question is the U8001A device, but the idea should be the same regardless of manufacturer (the instrument was bought long before I was hired, or I would have opted for one with SCPI commands if that's a thing for power supplies):

http://www.tequipment.net/AgilentU8001A.asp?Source=googleshopping&gclid=CMn-rPzAks0CFZM6gQodMu4McQ

We have the two connectors that would be plugged into the power supply and into the "brick"  what holds whatever sample we want to heat up. This worked fine for our original purpose, but we're now interested in timing these events alongside 1-2 other instruments that we're operating (such as an ohm-meter for quality control), where we can control all of this via LabVIEW. Say, only allowing the power to reach the sample in intervals of 5 seconds, with pulse widths of 1-2 seconds.

I'm sure I will need a multifunction DAQ device, and I already have my eyes set on purchasing the NI USB-6501 (link given below). My main question concerns any additional hardware that's necesasry, if only a discussion of cenceptual ideas on what I'm trying to accomplish. Can I do everything I plan solely via the DAQ, or are there other necessary hardware, such as gates? What kind of hardware is suitable for this? I apologize if this is the incorrect subforum for this topic, as this seemed to be the most appropriate hardware subforum upon posting. Thanks for your time!

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/201630

[crossrulz · Accepted solution]

Not even an analog control on that power supply...What voltage range and how much power do you need?  You may be able to do an op-amp circuit, but finding one that can handle that much power likely won't be easy.

Honestly, I say just bite the bullet and get a programmable power supply.  It will be cheaper than you trying to make a custom circuit to fit a circle peg in a square hole.

[Henrik_Volkers]

If you want to control the output voltage/current I'm with crossrulz.

If you only want to switch on and off the powersupply the timing requierements are important.

Some cheap hacks to control a relay: Use the control lines of the rs232 port , an optocoupler,  a transistor, a diode and a relay ,   or use the soundcard output, a c for decoupling (or leave it 😉 )  two diodes to rectify, a resistor, a transitor,diode relay ....   back in the old days a printerport could control 8 relays 😄

that was with about 15ms software timing ...  never did tests with newer hardware and hacks of this type...

[nprice2012]

I think we'll stick with the nonprogrammable one, simply due to our lab not liking to change SOP's, which we'd have to do with a new instrument, making sure the necessary drivers contained in the instrument are air force-cerrified, etc. It's much simpler, at least from a paperwork perspective, to add circuitry hardware.

Power should not be an issue. We're currently running the power supply at 0.1 V and 0.6 A, sometimes raising the voltage a bit, but our samples are on the order of 50 - 100 nL for our trace analysis. So a DAQ and a relay seem to be good items, maybe a transistor. Anything else? We're using our serial port for the PipeJet currently, but we could always add on additional serial ports. And the DAQ is a USB one I believe, unless you're referring to other parts.