Accelerometer: Can i do this with my labVIEW 8.2 Student Edition?

[Bangkok]

Dear anyone who is reading this,


Sorry but i'm still a newbie to this program. But i want to know if i can do this with labVIEW or not: I will have an accelerometer as the sensor, attached to a flat surface. Of course there will be noises but there will sometimes be impact forces which causes large acceleration to be detected by the accelerometer. I want to set a trigger level at a certain magnitude so that only signals above that specified magnitude will give data. Most of the time noises will be below the trigger level, but impact force will causes acceleration to go above trigger level - Using a counter (to continuously count time), i want labVIEW to record and give off/show the time (time that is recorded by the counter) at the instant the first data point is detected (which is the first data point above the trigger level magnitude).

Now, considering impact creates soundwaves and that they are very fast, a microsecond counter will be needed.

Is this possible?

A simple yes or no answer would be greatly appreciated. Any additional comments gladly welcome.

Thanks

[GITA_A]

Hi,

      This you can do it in LabVIEW and rather than counter you can also use a timer to find the first data point detected but the timing function available are all in ms. Search through the forum regarding this microsec timer you will get more info.Hope this will help you.

[Bangkok]

Thank you.

A few more confirmation that labVIEW can do this would greatly motivate me.

p.s. for setting the trigger (magnitude) level, can i use the "mask and limit testing"?? I can set the upper limit and lower limit to intersect at exactly a number and so when the magnitude reaches that value, it will give off boolean TRUE.

[RT4CY · Accepted solution]

Hi Bangkok,

You will definitely be able to do this using LabVIEW, however the discussion so far has been a software-timed approach.  In LabVIEW, instead of using the Mask and Limit Testing VI, I probably would just use the Basic Level Triggering VI found here instead.



For better performance, you should do this triggering in hardware.  Any of our low-cost M Series devices support hardware analog triggering.  You will program these devices with our NI-DAQmx driver.  The installation of this driver includes many LabVIEW examples that will get you in the right direction. 

Message Edited by RT4CY on 12-26-2008 03:57 PM