National Instruments VirtualBench manual

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55

Go to page of

A good user manual

The rules should oblige the seller to give the purchaser an operating instrucion of National Instruments VirtualBench, along with an item. The lack of an instruction or false information given to customer shall constitute grounds to apply for a complaint because of nonconformity of goods with the contract. In accordance with the law, a customer can receive an instruction in non-paper form; lately graphic and electronic forms of the manuals, as well as instructional videos have been majorly used. A necessary precondition for this is the unmistakable, legible character of an instruction.

What is an instruction?

The term originates from the Latin word „instructio”, which means organizing. Therefore, in an instruction of National Instruments VirtualBench one could find a process description. An instruction's purpose is to teach, to ease the start-up and an item's use or performance of certain activities. An instruction is a compilation of information about an item/a service, it is a clue.

Unfortunately, only a few customers devote their time to read an instruction of National Instruments VirtualBench. A good user manual introduces us to a number of additional functionalities of the purchased item, and also helps us to avoid the formation of most of the defects.

What should a perfect user manual contain?

First and foremost, an user manual of National Instruments VirtualBench should contain:
- informations concerning technical data of National Instruments VirtualBench
- name of the manufacturer and a year of construction of the National Instruments VirtualBench item
- rules of operation, control and maintenance of the National Instruments VirtualBench item
- safety signs and mark certificates which confirm compatibility with appropriate standards

Why don't we read the manuals?

Usually it results from the lack of time and certainty about functionalities of purchased items. Unfortunately, networking and start-up of National Instruments VirtualBench alone are not enough. An instruction contains a number of clues concerning respective functionalities, safety rules, maintenance methods (what means should be used), eventual defects of National Instruments VirtualBench, and methods of problem resolution. Eventually, when one still can't find the answer to his problems, he will be directed to the National Instruments service. Lately animated manuals and instructional videos are quite popular among customers. These kinds of user manuals are effective; they assure that a customer will familiarize himself with the whole material, and won't skip complicated, technical information of National Instruments VirtualBench.

Why one should read the manuals?

It is mostly in the manuals where we will find the details concerning construction and possibility of the National Instruments VirtualBench item, and its use of respective accessory, as well as information concerning all the functions and facilities.

After a successful purchase of an item one should find a moment and get to know with every part of an instruction. Currently the manuals are carefully prearranged and translated, so they could be fully understood by its users. The manuals will serve as an informational aid.

Table of contents for the manual

  • Page 1

    Getting Started with VirtualBench ™ Getting Started with VirtualBench March 1997 Edition Part Number 321518A-01 © Copyright 1997 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. 01Title.fm Page 1 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:19 PM[...]

  • Page 2

    support@natinst.com E-mail: info@natinst.com FTP Site: ftp.natinst.com Web Address: http://www.natinst.com BBS United States: (512) 794-5422 BBS United Kingdom: 01635 551422 BBS France: 01 48 65 15 59 (512) 418-1111 Tel: (512) 795-8248 Fax: (512) 794-5678 Australia 02 9874 4100, Austria 0662 45 79 90 0, Belgium 02 757 00 20, Canada (Ontario) 905 78[...]

  • Page 3

    Important Information Warranty The media on which you receive National Instruments software are warranted not to fail to execute programming instructions, du e to defect s in materi als and wor kmanshi p, for a peri od of 90 day s from dat e of ship ment, as ev idenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option, re[...]

  • Page 4

    © National Instruments Corporation v Getting Started with VirtualBench Contents About This Manual Conventions Used in This Manual ................................................................................... vii Customer Communication ............................................................................................... viii Chapter[...]

  • Page 5

    Contents Getting Started with VirtualBench vi © National Instruments Corporation Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Front Panel Features ........................................................................................................ 6-1 Measuring a Signal ............................................................................................[...]

  • Page 6

    © National Instruments Corporation vii Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h About This Manual The VirtualBench suite of tools is a high-performance, easy-to-use virtual instruments application program for Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, or Windows NT. Getting Started with VirtualBench gives you step-by-step instructions on how to u[...]

  • Page 7

    Ge tt i ng S ta r te d w i th V ir t ua lB e nc h viii © National Instruments Corporation About This Manual paths Paths in this manual are denoted using backslashes () to separate drive names, directories, and files, as in C:dir1namedir 2namefilename . This icon to the left of bold, italicized text denotes a note, which alerts you to important[...]

  • Page 8

    © National Instruments Corporation 1-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Welcome to VirtualBench, a suite of high-performance, easy-to-use virtual instruments for Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, and Windows NT. This document contains installation instructions, lists of system requirements and ne[...]

  • Page 9

    Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Getting Started with VirtualBench 1-2 © National Instruments Corporation • NI-DAQ 4.9.0 if you plan to use an AT-DSP2200, AT-A2150, or EISA-A2000 DAQ device • NI-DAQ 5.0 or later if you plan to use Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later, or if you plan to use any of the following new DAQ devices: – PCI-MIO-16E-1 [...]

  • Page 10

    Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench © National Instruments Corporation 1-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Note: It is recommended that you not run other applications while you install VirtualBench. 3. Insert Disk 1 into your 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. 4. Select Run from the File menu in the Program Manager. 5. Enter A:setup or B:s[...]

  • Page 11

    Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Getting Started with VirtualBench 1-4 © National Instruments Corporation What Is Installed by the Setup Program If you purchased the full VirtualBench suite, the setup program installs the VirtualBench engine and nine virtual instruments: the oscilloscope (Scope), dynamic signal analyzer (DSA), digital multimeter [...]

  • Page 12

    © National Instruments Corporation 2-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Scope by double-clicking on the Scope icon in the VirtualBench window within the Program Manager. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-Scope by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBen [...]

  • Page 13

    Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope Getting Started with VirtualBench 2-2 © National Instruments Corporation The front panel of VirtualBench-Scope has the following features: • Channel Selector — selects a waveform for display on the Graphics display. • Channel Settings —adjusts the vertical sensitivity of the select ed channel. Turning the knob [...]

  • Page 14

    Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope © National Instruments Corporation 2-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Acquiring Data You can start acquiring signals with VirtualBench-Scope by completing the following steps : 1. Connect a signal to the Channel 0 input of your National Instruments DAQ device. See the user manual of your DAQ device fo[...]

  • Page 15

    Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope Getting Started with VirtualBench 2-4 © National Instruments Corporation d. Click on OK to use these settings . 3. Save your settings by selecting Edit»Save Settings from the pull-down menu on the front panel. Enter the name of the file you want to save, for example MyScope.set . Note: When you launch VirtualBench-Sco[...]

  • Page 16

    © National Instruments Corporation 3-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Logger by double-clicking on the Logger icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-Logger by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench»VirtualBench-[...]

  • Page 17

    Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger Getting Started with VirtualBench 3-2 © National Instruments Corporation The front panel of VirtualBench-Logger has the following features: • Strip Chart Display — displays the logged data. • Y-Axis Select Controls — selects which channel Y scale to display on either the left or right Y axis of the Strip Chart[...]

  • Page 18

    Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger © National Instruments Corporation 3-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Acquiring Data You can start acquiring data with VirtualBench-Logger by following these steps: 1. Connect several known voltage signals to the input channels of your DAQ device. See the user manual of your DAQ device for details. I[...]

  • Page 19

    Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger Getting Started with VirtualBench 3-4 © National Instruments Corporation d. Set the channel attributes for each channel from the Start to End Channel. Give each channel an appropriate label for easy identification on the Strip Chart display. e. Click on the File Config button. Specify the name of the Log file where th[...]

  • Page 20

    Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger © National Instruments Corporation 3-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h g. Click on OK in the Logger Settings dialog box to return to the front panel. 3. Select the channels that you want to display on the strip chart using the Channel Select Control. 4. Use the right and left Y-axis Controls to select[...]

  • Page 21

    © National Instruments Corporation 4-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DSA (Dynamic Signal Analyzer) by double-clicking on the DSA icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-DSA by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench?[...]

  • Page 22

    Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-2 © National Instruments Corporation log/linear mode, phase unit, and markers in this control. You can refer to the online help for a detailed description of each component. • Display 1/Display 2 Controls —changes the marker positions and display attributes of the respective displa[...]

  • Page 23

    Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA © National Instruments Corporation 4-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Acquiring and Measuring Signals You can start acquiring and measuring signals with VirtualBench-DSA by following these steps: 1. Connect a signal to the Channel 0 or 1 input of your DAQ device. Please refer to the user manual of your [...]

  • Page 24

    Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-4 © National Instruments Corporation f. Click on the Acquisition tab in the DSA Settings dialog box. g. Set the Frame Size control to 1024. VirtualBench-DSA will analyze data in blocks of 1024 points. h. Select a Sample Rate that is at least twice the maximum frequency that you are try[...]

  • Page 25

    Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA © National Instruments Corporation 4-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h j. Click on the Triggering tab in the DSA Settings dialog box. k. Set the Trigger Type to none. This setting puts the acquisition in a Freerun mode. l. Click on OK . 3. Change the display indicator (left and right arrow buttons) to Di[...]

  • Page 26

    Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-6 © National Instruments Corporation Display Control. Check your signal connections if data is still not visible. 10. Click on Run . VirtualBench-DSA continuously acquires and displays frames of data. 11. Click on Run again to stop acquisition. Note: Please refer to the VirtualBench-DS[...]

  • Page 27

    © National Instruments Corporation 5-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-FG (Function Generator) by double-clicking on the FG icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-FG by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench»VirtualB[...]

  • Page 28

    Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG Getting Started with VirtualBench 5-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Waveform Modifier Controls —modifies some of the properties of the waveform. – Duty Cycle —adjusts the duty cycles of the Sine Wave, Square Wave, and Triangle Wave. – Offset —adjus ts the DC offset of the waveform. – Amplitude —adju[...]

  • Page 29

    Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG © National Instruments Corporation 5-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 2. Connect a device or scope to the output of the analog output device that you specified in step one. See your DAQ device user manual for details. 3. Click on Run . VirtualBench-FG continuously generates an analog waveform at the outp[...]

  • Page 30

    © National Instruments Corporation 6-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DMM (Digital Multimeter) by double-clicking on the DMM icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-DMM by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBen ch»Vir[...]

  • Page 31

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-2 © National Instruments Corporation – Current AC — measures the AC component of a current source. – Ohms — measures resistance. – Temperature — measures tem perature. – Diode — measures the voltage drop across a diode. Note: Diode mode is only available when you are us[...]

  • Page 32

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Measuring a Signal You can start measuring signals with VirtualBench-DMM by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-DMM. a. Select Settings from the Edit menu on the front panel. b. Select the General tab. c. Select the Devic[...]

  • Page 33

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-4 © National Instruments Corporation c. Click on Run . VirtualBench-DMM continuously acquires and displays voltage measurements in the display window. d. Check to see that the input signal does not exceed the range of your DAQ device, and that the input signal does not exceed the selec[...]

  • Page 34

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h i. Check to see that the input signal does not exceed the range of your DAQ device, and that the input signal does not exceed the selected range, when the DMM display shows +CLIP or -CLIP. j. Click on Run again to stop the measurement[...]

  • Page 35

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-6 © National Instruments Corporation c. Select the Temperature tab. d. Select the type of sensor that you connected to the channel specified in step one, in substep "a", from the Temperature Sensor list. e. Select the Temperature Units you want the temperature to be displayed[...]

  • Page 36

    Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-7 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 6. Measuring a diode. If you are using a DAQCard-4050 device, you may measure the voltage drop across a diode, up to two volts. a. Connect the diode to the terminals of the DAQCard-4050. b. Click on the sixth (diode) button in the mov[...]

  • Page 37

    © National Instruments Corporation 7-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Arb (Arbitrary Waveform Generator) by double-clicking on the Arb icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-Arb by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualB[...]

  • Page 38

    Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Amplitude Control — scales the waveform by a specified amount. • Offset Control —adds a voltage offset to the waveform. • Phase Control — shifts the waveform buffer by a certain phase, specified in degrees. • Play/Stop Control — st[...]

  • Page 39

    Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb © National Instruments Corporation 7-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h The Waveform Editor front panel of VirtualBench-Arb has the following features: • View Control — selects the waveform view displayed on the graph. Waveform displays the entire waveform. Segment displays the first of the selected s[...]

  • Page 40

    Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-4 © National Instruments Corporation Generating a Waveform You can start generating waveforms with VirtualBench-Arb by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-Arb. a. Select Settings from the Edit menu on the front panel. b. Select the Channels tab. c. Select the Device that y[...]

  • Page 41

    Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb © National Instruments Corporation 7-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h c. Click on New Component . By default, every time you click on New Component , a new library component is added to any existing waveform. d. Select the type of component: Library, Expression, or Sketch. The following steps further de[...]

  • Page 42

    Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-6 © National Instruments Corporation c. Select Sketch from the Component Type control. d. Click on Draw . Notice that this changes from View to Component mode, so that only the current component is displayed. e. Click and drag over the graph to create a waveform using the mouse. Change[...]

  • Page 43

    © National Instruments Corporation 8-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-AODC (Analog Output Direct Current) by double-clicking on the AODC icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT4.0, you launch VirtualBench-AODC by selecting Start»Programs»Virtu[...]

  • Page 44

    Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC Getting Started with VirtualBench 8-2 © National Instruments Corporation Controlling Analog Output You can start controlling analog output with VirtualBench-AODC by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-AODC. a. Select Settings from the Edit menu on the front panel. b. Click on the General tab in the AODC Set[...]

  • Page 45

    Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC © National Instruments Corporation 8-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h d. Click on the AO Channels tab on the AODC Settings dialog box. e. Select the Range and Initial Voltage (V) or Current (mA) for each channel in the Channels list. f. Click on OK to use these settings. 2. Use the Channel control to a[...]

  • Page 46

    © National Instruments Corporation 9-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DIO (Digital Input/Output) by double-clicking on the DIO icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-DIO by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench»Vi[...]

  • Page 47

    Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO Getting Started with VirtualBench 9-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Hex Control — sets the digital state, in hexadecimal form, of the assigned digital port. The state of the digital port is not actually changed until the Write button is clicked on. • Hex Indicator — shows the current state, in hexadecimal [...]

  • Page 48

    Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO © National Instruments Corporation 9-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h c. Select the Device and SCXI Module that you want to use. The SCXI Module list is disabled if no SCXI modules are configured for the selected device. The device must be successfully configured in the NI-DAQ Configuration Utility to a[...]

  • Page 49

    © National Instruments Corporation 10-1 Get ti n g S t ar te d w it h V i rt u al Be n ch Chapter 10 VirtualBench- Device Calibrator In Windows 3.1x, you launch the VirtualBench-Device Calibrator by double-clicking on the Calibrate icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT4.0, you launch the VirtualBench-Device Calibrator by selecti[...]

  • Page 50

    Chapter 10 Virtual Bench-Device Calibrator Getting Started with VirtualBench 10 -2 © National Instruments Corporation Calibrating a DAQ Device You can calibrate your device with VirtualBench-Device Calibrator by following these steps: 1. Wait at least 15 minutes after both your computer and device are powered on before calibrating your device. 2. [...]

  • Page 51

    © National Instruments Corporation A-1 Getting Started with VirtualBench Appendix Customer Communication For your convenience, this appendix contains forms to help you gather the information necessary to help us solve your technical problems and a form you can use to comment on the product documentation. When you contact us, we need the informatio[...]

  • Page 52

    Fax-on-Demand is a 24-hour information retrieval system containing a library of documents on a wide range of technical information. You can access Fax-on-Demand from a touch-tone telephone at (512) 418-1111. You can submit technical support questions to the applications engineering team through e-mail at the Internet address listed below. Remember [...]

  • Page 53

    Technical Support Form Photocopy this form and update it each time you make changes to your software or hardware, an d use the completed copy of this form as a reference for your current configuration. Completing this form accurately before contacting National Instruments for technical support helps our applications engineers answer your questions [...]

  • Page 54

    VirtualBench Hardware and Software Configuration Form Record the settings and revisions of your hardware and software on the line to the right of each item. Complete a new copy of this form each time you revise your software or hardware configuration, and use this form as a reference for your current configuration. Completing this form accurately b[...]

  • Page 55

    Documentation Comment Form National Instruments encourages you to comment on the documentation supplied with our products. This information helps us provide quality products to meet your needs. Title: Getting Started with VirtualBench ™ Edition Date: March 1997 Part Number: 321518A-01 Please comment on the completeness, clarity, and organization [...]