topic Re: Events counting and timing. in LabVIEW

Events counting and timing.

Aladdin2020 — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 14:12:46 GMT

Hi,

I’m building a program to count how many times I pressed the button and a timer that counts and displays the seconds (to 3 decimal places) between times that the button was pressed. So far, I was able to construct a simple VI to count the number of presses however, I’m struggling to Implement a timer that counts and displays the seconds between times the button was pressed. I would really appreciate any correction or feedback to point me in the right direction. My VI is attached.

Thanks in advance

Re: Events counting and timing.

GerdW — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 14:54:12 GMT

Hi XDX,

first i simplified your VI:

One boolean function is enough to look for falling edges…

@Aladdin2020 wrote:

I’m struggling to Implement a timer that counts and displays the seconds between times the button was pressed.

When the button (which you should give a better label, not just "boolean"!) is pressed you need to store the current timer value in a shift register. In the next iterations you simply subtract the stored timer value from the current value to get the elapsed time…

Re: Events counting and timing.

altenbach — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:39:06 GMT

Use a latch action button and high resolution relative time, e.g. as follows:

(You could also take the tick count difference and divide by 1000, but you need to ensure that the max time between pushes is below 2^32ms, about 49 days)

(I doubt you need milliseconds, though)

Re: Events counting and timing.

Aladdin2020 — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:44:46 GMT

Hi altenbach,

Thank you for your help! I appreciate your time! Your solution is pretty creative and it’s exactly what I was looking for. So thank you again!

Re: Events counting and timing.

altenbach — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:03:32 GMT

Make sure to learn about the various mechanical action modes.

If you have a switch boolean, here's an easier way to tell whenever it goes from false to true. (no need for a pile of not equal, NOT, AND, etc.).

Similarly, use "less than" to detect TRUE>False transition and "Not equal" to detect any change.

Re: Events counting and timing.

Kevin_Price — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 18:00:36 GMT

Though > and < operations on booleans in LabVIEW can work, I don't find it as natural as "regular" logic operations. Plus, I still carry some historic memory from a time & place where > and < would have failed. I avoid altenbach's "pile" of logic operators by using the "compound arithmetic" node which supports the option for inverting inputs and output individually.

It's a better fit for the way I think, to-MAY-to, to-MAH-to and all that.

-Kevin P

Re: Events counting and timing.

StevenD — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 18:44:36 GMT

@altenbach wrote:

(You could also take the tick count difference and divide by 1000, but you need to ensure that the max time between pushes is below 2^32ms, about 49 days)

This is a bit off topic, but..

I think going over 2^32 ms in this case doesn't matter as long as you keep the data in the same representation. If you get to where that happens your result should be a negative number, but because LabVIEW is representing it unsigned and the sign bit is not even in the data anymore you will get the correct answer. Hard to explain but I think it's best shown as follows.

Approaching the maximum value for a U32

Larger number has rolled over and started counting up from 0, but subtract still gives the "right" (wrong?) answer.

Re: Events counting and timing.

altenbach — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 19:16:45 GMT

@StevenD wrote:
Larger number has rolled over and started counting up from 0, but subtract still gives the "right" (wrong?) answer.

You don't have a problem at the rollover also long as the time difference is less than ~49 days. After that, the displayed time since last push will start again at zero even if the button has not been pressed for ~49 days! An incorrect result.

Re: Events counting and timing.

joinde77 — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 22:26:41 GMT

i want to know what is this and from where i find it ?

thanks

Re: Events counting and timing.

ZYOng — Mon, 19 May 2025 23:44:55 GMT

@joinde77 wrote:

i want to know what is this and from where i find it ?

thanks

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