Syllabus
1. Introduction to LabView and LabView programs (VIs), basic building blocks, principles of "non-procedural" graphical programming
2. Basic data types and dynamical signals, their representations and conversion, loops, specific notes on the use of local and global variables
3. Program execution in LabView, value transfer, parallelization (using 1 PC), sub-Vis (subroutines), recursion
4. Experiment automation; typical communication interfaces for connecting measurement devices to PCs: RS-232, GPIB, USB, Ethernet; specifications and native commands of RS-232 and GPIB; the VISA standard; LabView functions for management of communication interfaces, Instrument Assistant, typical challenges in communication with instruments
5. Practical digitization of analogue signals, DAQ cards, anti-aliasing and filters
6. Data processing - selection of mathematical functions and libraries, saving and reading data files, Data Plugins
7. Execution timing of VIs and sub-VIs, synchronization, LabView Real-Time, Trace Execution Toolkit
8. Feedback - event handling, adaptive formatting of displayed elements and of their content, feedback in designing software architectures
9. Extensions and plug-ins for other development/communication systems - web interfaces (+Web Services - since LV2009), LabView & Matlab (Mathscript), LabView & C, LabView Dashboard for iPad, Android
10. LabView Compiler, LabView Runtime, preparing stand-alone executables Practical examples of LabView-controlled systems, LabView FPGA, other applications in physics
Annotation
This course aims to familiarize the students of any given specialized field with the basics of programming in LabView – a graphical development system widely used for data acquisition and process control in physics and technical laboratories as well as in industry. The lecture will emphasize practical aspects of the subject and will be centered around the typical tasks facing an experimental researcher, i.e., automated control of measuring devices, as well as data acquisition, logging and processing.
Practical programming excercises for students and their independent work.