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PicoLab_EnvMonitor : a learning journey on LabVIEW - Final

flyingbean

Table of Contents

Introduction

LabVIEW is a graphical programming environment. It is a virtual instrument engineering workbench. I did not use LabVIEW before the road test; however, I am planning to use LabVIEW for my near future projects in 2023. With LabVIEW community license, I can run hands-on projects via LabVIEW GUI environments. In the meantime, my journey with LabVIEW workbench went even further after I learned how to use Pico SCPI labTool firmware.

The initial proposed PicoLab_EnvMonitor project was to monitor environment sound/noise signals. Then I would use LabVIEW FFT to extract information, so that the sound analysis system might be able to indicate the sound/noise environment is beyond than the safe environment level or not. After a couple of weeks learning LabVIEW on Pi Pico platform, I could not get LabVIEW working with Pi Pico acquisition under frequency domain since the learning curve is quite steep. I did check the LabVIEW FFT projects on Arduino platform for FFT transformation. However, I don’t think I can make it happen before the road test deadline. So the final project for the road test is simplified to be two smaller projects:

  1. Light sensor monitoring system.
  2. NTC thermal sensor controlled FAN system.

LabVIEW Training

There are 10 quizzes from NI LabVIEW Community for the road test. I took all of them and my scores were just average. However, I did learn a lot of basic skills of LabVIEW programming. After this training path, I believe that I will use LabVIEW more often than now. Here is some feedback from my training.

  1. Installation of Visual Code for SCPI labTool firmware:

Here is my tool chain version: Window 10, Visual Code 1.82.2, GCC, CMAKE.

I started to install Visual Code and all the dependencies as shabaz instructed:

working-with-the-raspberry-pi-pico-with-windows-and-c-c

However, my main Windows 10 PC had too many tools installed, so that I got big challenges to solve the environment parameters setup there. At the end of the troubleshooting, I started to install all the tool chain from a fresh Windows10 laptop. Then all the tool chain issues were solved.

  1. LavVIEW is graphic programming, which means it is easy to start with a simple project, but it could be challenging to build a complicated project with time going.

LabVIEW Road Test project 1: Light sensor monitoring system

The basic structure is illustrated as below:

image

There are three buildings blocks: Pi Pico,  LED and Light sensor.  I used a moving average feature from LabVIEW to reduce the noise of the light sensor as below.The light senor is TEMT6000 module from my LinkSprite IoT lab kit.

image

The real work bench and virtual workbench photo is presented as below.

image

Here is the video record of light sensing to control LED ON/OFF if the light sensor reading data is lower than 500 from the Pi Pico ADC pin.

 Here is the final LabVIEW project for light sensor switching LED On/Off.

 image

LabVIEW Road Test project 2: NTC thermal sensor controlled FAN system

The project consists of a NTC thermal measurement circuit, 24VDC fan with PWM/tachometer signals, and Pi Pico as below.

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1. NTC circuit

I used VISHAY NTC part: NTCALUG01A103G401, which is 10KOHM at 25C. TI part: TLV9064 is used for OPAM. Here is the schematics on the bench testing.

image

2. FAN/PWM control and tachometer

The FAN  is  a box fan from Sanyo Denki America. The part number is 9GA0424P3J001, which is 24VDC with PWM control signal and Techometer sensor signal out.

The NTC thermal sensor will control PWM duty cycle, which means the higher the temperature is, the faster the FAN can run. Here is the bench testing setup.

image

Here is the final LabVIEW project

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Here is the video of NTC sensor controlled FAN speed via LabVIEW.

 

Conclusions

1. LabVIEW is a feature-rich environment for automation testing projects.

2. Pico SCPI labTool firmware and associated HOWTOs are really helpful to let me jump into the automation testing projects in a very fast speed. I would like to call it a speedy learning path. I can start my LabVIEW journey after this road test. In fact, I am planning to bring LabVIEW tool chain into my EE lab soon.

3. I will keep in mind that I should plan more time for DSP-related LabVIEW projects on Pi Pico platform in the future.

 

References

1. PST.. Have you worked with the Pico SCPI labTool?       By shabaz, 2023 Aug   PST.. Have you worked with the Pico SCPI labTool?

2. Sound and Vibration Measurement: Instrument Network Service for LabVIEW Pt10: example with FFT by Jan Cumps Sound and Vibration Measurement with FFT

 

  • I got some feedback from Jan Cumps about the LabVIEW projects I did. I would like to share the updated project: NTC thermal sensor controlled FAN system.

    1. I split the VISA resource into two blocks in my previous flow. I did notice that. I knew it would not do good things for the project. However, I did not know why. The overall project still functioned as expected, so I decided to push the split VISA source with two "close" blocks at the final blog. I would like to listen the feedback about that. Jan Cumps did find the non-ideal flow on the LabVIEW projects. Good catch.

     Here is the original Jan's comments:

       little watch-out: you split the VISA resource to two blocks in your flows, and then end both branches with a Close block.

        It's the same single VISA resource, you should only close it once. Either join the two branches at the end, or only continue one and close it.

    2. I updated LabVIEW project after Jan's feedback as this:

    image

    and

    image

    3. Updated NTC short breadboard circuit into a soldering prototype circuit. I like soldering prototype circuits for the bench testing. I did find some time last weekend and updated the NTC thermal sensor circuit with copper paper, SMD resistors/capacitors and 30 gauge wires as below:

    image

    The copper paper really helped with overall prototype circuit routing.

    image

    Here is the updated NTC/FAN LabVIEW bench testing:

    image

    and

    image

    It took me two iterations to build the updated NTC thermal sensor circuit with copper paper and SMD parts.