Creating a VI to control a common household bulb

[The_Big_Cheese]

How would I go about controlling a household light bulb with LabVIEW? 

I have a VI that controls a shaketable but the problem is you can't see it at night. I was thinking maybe I could create a VI that turns on the light, runs the shaketable, then turns the light off. How would I go about setting this up? I was thinking maybe something along the lines of a DC Output Toggle Switch. 

Thank you very much.

[Kenny_K]

There are a number of ways that this could be done, it all depends on your budget and what hardware you have availible.

How are you controlling the shake table?  Serial commands, relays?

If you have a device that you can operate with the DC Toggle Switch (not sure exactly what you mean) you could have it operate a relay, and turn on the 120 VAC to a lightbulb.

We need some more information on your setup to provide more accurate answer

[billko]

if you have a programmable power supply, i suppose you could use it to power a light bulb.  surely not the most efficient way, but just throwing out ideas.

[The_Big_Cheese]

The shaketable is connected to an I/O connector (SCB-68) which connects to a NI PCIe-6321 card.  I'm using the NI-DAQmx function nodes to control the input and output of the shaketable. 

[Kyle97330]

The NI PCIe-6321 card has 24 Digital IO lines.  Each can put out 24mA at 5V.  Not enough to run a light bulb, but maybe you can find a relay that it can power and then run the bulb through that.

[The_Big_Cheese]

The NI PCIe-6321 card has 24 Digital IO lines.  Each can put out 24mA at 5V.  Not enough to run a light bulb, but maybe you can find a relay that it can power and then run the bulb through that.

something like this: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10747 ??

[Blokk]

FYI, I have found this gadget very useful (I operate a heater watchdog with this):

http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/products/usb-actuators/yocto-powerrelay

Up to 220V / 5A .

I usually just use it from LabVIEW via command line library (using the System Exec.vi):

http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/libraries.php

But it is also possible to operate it in other way:

http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/article/labview-and-yoctopuce-sensors

ps.: I do not work for this company, but I like this little device as it is 23 EUR 🙂 Also cool programmable features + possible network extension modules, so you can operate it from your mobile phone.

[Sam_Sharp]

We've started using their modules too (temperature and humidity). We've also used some of the WiFi hubs to do remote sensor logging of temperature chambers. Very nice bits of kit and the added bonus is that you don't need to install any drivers to get them to work!

[yoctopuce]

Hi

This is obviously borderline off-topic, so I hope than none of you will be upset about this post.  But here, at Yoctopuce, we eventually started to work on a proper Library for LabVIEW. If you are interested in beta-testing, don't hesitate to contact Yoctopuce support, we will be more than happy to give you an early access to it.  

🙂