Support of a MSP430 evaluation board in LabView

[Pavel_47]

Hello,

For our testbench we planify to use LabView and some low-cost microcontroller board (e.g. based on MSP430).

Where could I find a list of development/evaluation boards, supported in LabView ?

Thanks in advance.

Pavel

P.S. For the moment we didn't installed LabView yet, so I can't utilize LabView interface to get such list

[Sam_Sharp]

What do you mean by supported in LabVIEW? Writing LabVIEW that will run on the board?

The answer is basically none. There used to be an Embedded Module that would allow you to target LabVIEW for certain development kits/processors (e.g. Blackfin) but now the NI supported embedded hardware is their cRIO/sbRIO range. There is now a toolkit which allows you write LabVIEW code for Arduino (and soon the Raspberry Pi). There is also the C Generator but again, I don't know of anyone that uses so I don't know how well supported it is.

More commonly, you would communicate with the microcontroller over Serial or another means (e.g. TCP/UDP, CAN / RS485 etc. etc.) which is supported by any microcontroller board.

[Pavel_47]

Hello Sam,

Thanks for response.

Here is our setup (for scientific testbench)

• camera (supported in LabView) that takes images
• these images are processed in LabView
• depending on processing, 4 analog voltage must be generated and applied to test equipment

For generating of the 4 analog voltages we have an evalutation board with 4 DAC.

This evaluation board is controlled via SPI.

So, we thaught to find some microcontrolled card with LabView support, that could receive control codes from PC (LabView) via USB and retransmit them to DAC evaluation board.

Can such solution be realized ?

If so, what microcontrolled card(s) can play this "intermediary" role (i.e. between PC (LabView) and DAC evaluation board).

Thanks

Pavel

[GerdW]

Hi Pavel,

NI sells hardware, which is able to output voltage signals!
Why don't you call your local NI sales guy?

[Pavel_47]

Hello GerdW,

I have had a glance on NI Signal Generator page.

http://sine.ni.com/np/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/mi/lang/en/pg/1/sn/n17:mi,n21:42,n1:11034/

The devices are quite performant and therefore expensive.

For our experiment we didn't need high speeds - our analog signals are quasi-static.

Also we have limited budget - 500 ... 1000$.

Probably there are less expensive device ... in this case it's strange that they aren't presented on NI site.

Thanks

Pavel.

[Pavel_47]

I've searched on youtube and found some examples on interfacing LabView and Arduino.

In principle Arduino card matches our requirements.

Just 2 questions ... for curiosity:

1. There is no similar toolkits for more performant evaluation kits/boards (e.g. for MSP430) ?
2. If otter than Arduino card is choosen ... is there some solution to integrate it in LabView. If YES, is such solution complicated and takes a time to realize ?

Thanks

Pavel

[Dennis_Knutson]

You've already been given the answer. To repeat it, your USB connection to the micro needs to be a virtual com port. That is exactly equivalent to what is done with the arduino toolkit. Once you have that, then you must write the code for the micro to send and receive serial commands. How complicated it is depends on your understanding of C or whatever programming language you use for the micro. Of course, you'll have to write the spi code as well. The LabVIEW part is trivial. Tie a student do your time is free, in any case.

Your search skills are seriously flawed if you only found the expensive signal generation boards and not the more basic boards with analog outputs such as the 9263.

[GerdW]

Or simple devices like 2 USB6008 boxes…

[Sam_Sharp]

The LINX Arduino toolkit that I mentioned works in the same way as you would communicate with most microcontrollers - the USB connection enumerates a serial port which you can write LabVIEW code to interface with using NI-VISA. The LINX toolkit has a pre-written sketch that allows you access to the IO on the arduino and implements the serial protocol for you to simplify development. You can write/use a simpler protocol yourself (e.g. send a comma separated list of values to the device for the 4 outputs).

Even if the USB port does not enumerate a serial port, it usually has a UART which you can use like a serial port with an RS-232 transceiver or a TTL level serial module (e.g. FTDI lead).

What are the specifications you require for your analogue output in terms of resolution/accuracy? Many microcontrollers have analogue outputs but they are usually quite low resolution (e.g. 8/12-bit for Arduino) or they are actually implemented using PWM rather than a true DAC.

The 9263 (1-slot cDAQ chassis with a 4ch analogue output module), seems to be within your budget and would save you lots of time over writing code for the microcontroller to communicate with the DAC eval kit and your LabVIEW code. It's also a calibrated measurement device so it's going to be more accurate than a microcontroller.

Oh, you might also be able to communicate directly with the DAC board using a USB to SPI chip - FTDI cables for this are about £10/$20.

[Pavel_47]

Hello Sam,

Thank you for exghaustive explanation. We reviewed our setup/budget and decided to buy some industrial module ... up to 2000$.

Indeed, there are interesting solutions at NI (e.g. Multifunctional Data Acquisition --> USB Basic Line or USB Bus Powered Line, thanks to Dennis_Knutson and GerdW), but we also have found interesting solutions at MeilHaus (RedLine products), that are also supported in LabView.

By "supported in LabView" I mean that there is a toolbox in LabView that allow to access graphically to all resources on a particular card or device (for the moment I have no experince with LabView, so probably my vision isn't exact or merely erroneous).

The difficulty while choosing Arduino is: even if LabView all the resources of the Arduino card can be accessed, some code must be implemented that:

• receive instructions for DAC card
• reformat them if neccessary
• transmit "reformatted" instructions to DAC card via SPI

So, development time becomes longer.

Finally last question (if you permit): what topic in NI documentation can I read in order to lean on how to interface with LabView any card ... those "isn't supported in LabView" (according to my vision) and possede only USB connection with PC.

Thanks

Pavel