Tag: Labview

Intro
Labview is used for real-time instrument controls and in First Robotics. It is a purely visual programming environment, which is very strange for me. I am a complete Labview amateur. If you’ve read some of my other posts you might see a pattern emerging! But nevertheless I know a few things. Then I use the program so infrequently I forget them. And Labview is the kind of program where you can spend a lot of time that could have been saved if you just knew a better way. So here is the better way…

The most useful Labview shortcuts
– – undo the last thing you did. I think you can undo more than just the last by repeating
– – remove broken wires
– – to toggle between Front panel and Block diagram
– – context-sensitive help
– – run the VI
– and hold-click, then drag mouse and release – do this between two nodes to push them (and everything else) apart. Works horizontally and vertically!
– Select (a node), -click, move mouse nearby and release – to create a duplicate of a node
– Right-click a node, then choose similar items from this function palette – to quickly find a related function

Tips
– Rt-click on wire, then Clean wire – to make it more tidy
– Click while dragging wire, then move the mouse at a right angle – to create a right-angle bend in the wire just where you want it

Labview mentor training
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-21180 This is a really helpful link for mentors as well as students.

The best resource I have found
Team 358 has put together the best resource for FRC teams I have found – every basic- and intermediate-level difficulty thing you’ll need is explained on this one page. Well worth a bookmark. Thank you team 358! http://team358.org/files/programming/ControlSystem2009-/LabVIEW/. (2/2016 update) But see the references for a working link to this page…

That’s about all I know!

References and related
Team 358’s web site is often not working. I have found a working copy on the Wayback machine of their great Labview tutorial: Team 358 Labview tutorial on archive.org