LabVIEW - College to Industry

[pacific]

hello Friends,

i am a Master's student in Electrical Engineering. Most students like me are confused about how to meet the expectations of employers. We have a good start in LabVIEW and have access to all the packages but need direction and guidance from the experienced people. i would like to know what is the best way to learn LabVIEW from the view point of getting a job.

I am not a beginner. I have cleared the CLAD exam and now preparing for the CLD. My problem is that I do not have much experience with live projects. But my university has a site license and hence I can work on all the modules like IMAQ, Signal Processing, Sound and Vibration, LabWindows, TestStand etc. Which modules must I try and master? I would aslo like to know if there are any good hobby projects which will help me show my knowledge in LabVIEW. Also is there any place from where i can get cheap and used hardware?

Thanks a lot for all the help.

[BJD1613]

My best suggestion about what you will work on in actual industry is that 99.9% of all applications that I have written have 4 key points.

1. A great user interface.

2. Some kind of data acquisition (GPIB, SERIAL, DAQ, IMAQ, etc.)

3. Use of some kind of hardware for acquisition (daq boards, pxi, vxi, fieldpoint, or other)

4. Some way to log it to a file. ( tab delimited text, or using the report generation toolkit)

I have been in the automation/test industry for about 5 years and this is what I have seen. If you can master these simple points you should be well on your way.

Now for a more advanced approach I would focus on the architecture of applications. (State Machines, Action Engines, Syncronization Techniques, multiple processes) and the new wave that has been coming up in LV is GOOP (Graphical Object Oriented Programming). If you can master these you will be a great asset to any company.

2 other sayings that I like to have in my back pocket at all times.

START WITH CLEAN CODE, AND YOU WILL END WITH CLEAN CODE

WHY DEVELOP AGAIN, THINK REUSE (create your own library)

Hope this helps

[Ray.R]

I think BJD1613 has summarized it nicely.

Basically, experiment with serial communication, manipulating the data and storing it.
The rest, you'll learn on the job. Don't be afraid of taking on a challenge.

Remember: Have fun writing vi's.. Keep them small and clean (use sub-vi's). And keep in touch with your friends on this forum..

😄

[EdDickens]

The other suggestions are great.

As for a good hobby project, I usually have people try and copy the look and operation of the standard calculator in Windows. It sounds easy, but there’s a lot to it.

This should teach you good user interface design, data manipulation/handling, and application architecture. (state machines, event handlers, producer/consumer…)

Good Luck
Ed

[BJD1613]

My favorite challenge for a young LV developer is to generate an array of 5 elements that would represent dice. Each of the five elements can only be numbers 1 through 6. This would simulate you rolling 5 dice. Alot of people have difficulty generating 1 through 6. Good luck.

[DFGray]

I second Ed's proposal. Try to find a project that gives you experience in large program development. The calculator is great. For an extra challenge, try to emulate an HP15C (programmable RPN calculator). Since LabVIEW is so easy for a novice , many beginners are lured into thinking large program development is just as simple. The first part of creating a large program in LabVIEW is no different than in any other language - you need to plan it. If you can keep all the details of your program in your head at one time, it is too small for good training or you are a modern day Nikolai Tesla. Take on a task that requires planning.

Learn object oriented design techniques. LabVIEW does not have native inheritance, but that is minor impediment (there are some commercial toolkits that do, e.g. Endevo GOOP2). Breaking your program into objects with data and methods is just good design practice. You may want to consider taking a computer course which teaches object oriented design. The proper C++ or Java course could be just the ticket. Make sure you don't get a course that only teaches language syntax. Make sure you get one that requires lots of coding - large project coding, if possible.

Don't worry too much about what toolkits you are familiar with. If you have time, play with them all. If not, don't sweat it. If you know the basics well, learning a new toolkit is a quick job. I would rather employ someone who knows how to program well and can learn than someone who knows one toolkit well but hasn't mastered the basics.

Good luck. Apply to NI when you graduate! We can always use more good people.

[IanW]

For cheap hardware you can use the computers sound card. Although only suitable for dynamic signals it can be ideal to develop techniques for sound/vibration and signal processing.

And as the others have said this forum is a great place to learn, I've found many usefull tricks from here.

Happy programming.

[Philip_Courtois]

Hi Forum,

Being an Applications Engineer for NI, it's amazing to see how dedicated you guys are in spreading LabVIEW to the world. I'm very proud of representing a company that gets such an overwhelming support from our customers...
Thanks y'all so much.

I just had to let it out!

By the way, I love Ed's and DFGray's proposals. Building a calculator will require a great amount of structured code to work successfully. To integrate communication into the calculator example, use two computers and build the UI (user interface) on one machine, and keep all the calculations (math engine) on the other machine. Then use Serial communication to pass the data back and forth between the two machines (UI and math engine). That challenge will require a bit more experience than this:



Good luck!

Message Edited by Philip C. on 06-14-2005 10:20 PM

[BJD1613]

Look at the thread in Breakpoint also. There are some different answers posted there.

[pacific]

Thank You BJD1613, Philip C., JoeLabVIEW, Ed Dickens, DFGray, IanW and everyone else.
I have started my window style calculator and I am having a fun time with LabVIEW!!