LIFA 2.0 to Release by End of 2011

[Kristoff2]

Thanks to the hard work of our newest LIFA team members Kevin and Julianne we will be releasing LIFA 2.0 by the end of the year (hopefully before Christmas)!

New features in LIFA 2.0 include:

Arduino 1.0 Support

Parrallax Passive Infrared Sensor Support

Character LCD Support

Stepper Motor Support - A big thanks goes out to Fred V for implementing this feature.

Continuous Analog Sampling Mode

Finite Analog Sampling Mode

Various Bug Fixes.

Questions? Comments?  What would you like to see in LIFA 3.0?  Post Below!

[TurboM]

Hi Sammy_K

Than you so much for this update. I really appreciate all your hard work. One question about the continuous analog sampling. I see in the figure one the sampling rate is at 500Hz. I need to sample a 2.5kHz signal so the sampling rate should be at least 2 x Fs. Wil the LIFA2.0 be able to accomodate this? And if not, is there a way to work around that?

Regards

TurboM

[Kristoff2]

TurboM,

You could always use your own methods to increase this sampling rate for your specific application, however I beleive that the Finite and Continuous sample modes will offer up to a maximum of 5Khz sampling rate. One things to keep in mind is that the continuous sampling mode disables all other comunication with the Arduino so when using this mode you cannot send commands to the Arduino until you stop the continuous sampling.  Finite sampling works in a similar fasion but allow you to specify the number of samples, wait for them to be gatherd at the given rate, and then continue on with your program.

Despite the limitations I think this is a much needed addition to the toolkit and will open many doors.

-Sam K

[mcurreri]

Hello Sammy_K

First off the LabVIEW interface for arduino is great! It's really going to help me with my senior design project. You'll have to forgive me if my following question is a bit convoluted but I am new to microcontroller programming and LabVIEW. I remember reading somewhere that the use of stepper motors via LabVIEW and Arduino was rather painful to impliment because of the relatively slow speed of sending step signals from LabVIEW to the Arduino and then to the stepper motor driver? I unfortunatley don't know where I came across this, but I was wondering if you were aware of the communication speed between the Arduino and stepper motor driver via the new stepper motor VI's in LIFA 2.0? Once again I apologize if my question isn't very clear, I am just trying to determine if what I want to do is capable with Arduino and LIFA 2.0. Thank you very much!

[Kristoff2]

Mcurreri,

It would be slow if you tried to generate and send each individual step from LabVIEW through the Arduino to the stepper drive / controller.  Luckily Fred's implementation does not do this, but instead sends a number of steps, direction, and acceleration to the Arduino which then uses timers to take care of sending the data out to the stepper drive / controller.

You can see Fred's implementation in action here:

https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/labview-interface-for-arduino/blog/2011/05/17/motorized-etch-a...

-Sam K

LIFA Developer

[mcurreri]

That's great news! Thank you so much for your quick reply. Looking forward to LIFA 2.0!

-Mcurreri

[wc64EE]

Hi, I was wondering if the LIFA 2.0 is already out, and if it is, or when it is, where can I get it from?

Thanks

[Kevin_F]

Hey wc64EE,

LIFA 2.0 is not out yet. Look for it next week. We will post instructions for downloading it here when it becomes available.

[Kristoff2]

We fell a bit behind schedule due to the holidays.  We have our final build ready and it should be available in a couple days.  To upgrade all you need to do is opn VI Package manager, scroll down to LabVIEW Interface for Arduino and install the latest version (2.0.0).  Once you have LIFA 2.0 installed update your board with the new firmware (as described here) and you should be good to go.

Please post feedback / bug reports in this thread.  Please read the first post (and ideally the entire thread) before posting in the bug report thread.

-Sam K

LIFA Developer

[hrh1818]

I see you have posted knformation on the new exaples for LIFA Versdion 2 and how to obtain the examples.  However, no mention is made of the new Arduino Firmware.required to use the new examples.  What procedure will yuou be using to distribute the new firware?

Howard