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LabVIEW circuit diagram help

Hi,
I was given a circuit diagram in LabVIEW. Having never used LabVIEW before, it seems quite complex to me, and I'm wondering if there is a way to find out what this circuit is doing, i.e. is there documentation regarding the different circuit blocks one can include in their system? So that I can debug this step by step to understand what it does.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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This is a difficult task if you've never used labview before. You should probably start learning some labview basics, e.g. by completing the tutorial. You need to be familiar with the concept of dataflow, controls, indicators, loops, etc.

To see what a complicated VI actually does can be difficult, even to the expert. It also depends on the programmings style of the original author.

(0) Is the diagram well structured or just a pile of wires and nodes?
(1) What is the file name? It often hints at the functionality.
(2) Look at the front panel. What are the names of the main controls and indicators. Does it look like a polished user interface, or more like a subVI.
(3) Look at the diagram. Are there comments (blocks of text explaining sections). How abou
t "file..VI properties...documentation"?
(4) Look at the connector? What are the inputs and outputs?
(5) Maybe run it after manually entering values into the controls.
(6) Enable execution highlighting and run it while watching the diagram. Place some probes.

(7) Try to contact the original author.
(8) Give up and post it here.

If the code is not well documented and structured, it's probably not worth the effort. It is unlikely that it has functionality useful for you.

Programming styles vary dramatically. Look for example at some of the entries of the first coding challenge. All VIs do exactly the same, but their diagrams are very different.
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Well, in response to your question about documentation, the answer is "Yes"..."and No"...

The standard blocks built into LV have help entries associated with them that you can get at by right-clicking on a node and looking for a help item in the resulting menu.

You can also open a help window by selecting CTRL-H. With this window open, hovering over an iten will sometimes give you additional information on the item.

The "and No" part of the answer is that subVIs (diagram icons that are roughly equivalent to subroutines in other programming languages) that the original developer created might not be documented internally to provide either kind of help.

What is the program for and why are you getting into it? Do you need to make a change to it, or ha
s it stopped working and you are trying to fix it?

Contact me backchannel and I might be able to help.

Mike...


Michael Porter
Porter Consulting LLC
mlportersr@webtv.net

Certified Professional Instructor
Certified LabVIEW Architect
LabVIEW Champion

"... after all, He's not a tame lion..."

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