LabVIEW Challenge – A Course in LabVIEW and Test Automation (Blog #1)

RE: LabVIEW Challenge – A Course in LabVIEW and Test Automation (Blog #1)

Jan Cumps — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 11:36:43 GMT

comment about the documentation:

There's a link in quiz 10 to the user documentation. It contains a reference to the SCPI commands, the driver blocks, and how to connect a ADC for high-res: [mention:57ce506e72ab4f0aab282e02aaaae3a6:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] .

More detail on the high-res external adc: [mention:ef788b07b685499f99eee96393e53cb6:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] <- this one is also explaining how to contribute.

The resistor example has its own blog: [mention:f5d6381d117e4a2c8c8c3b9ad38258bc:46448885d0e64133bbfbf0cd7b0fd6f7]

There's an example that shows how to start developing firmware changes ( [mention:685492933bf04afd97bea7bf35ff742f:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] ) ,
and a few show how to build a new feature ([mention:1d9547065d6d48baac131103c837d627:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] , [mention:ef788b07b685499f99eee96393e53cb6:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07] ).
One of the contributions was a quick guide to build from source ([mention:a56bea21667f4eb4bad20d532c9f6f30:f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07:label=Setting%20up%20the%20Raspberry%20Pi%20Pico%20%26amp%3B%20accessing%20with%20Labview] ).

There's a link to all posts at the footer of every article

RE: LabVIEW Challenge – A Course in LabVIEW and Test Automation (Blog #1)

Jan Cumps — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 09:26:48 GMT

"the current Pico interface functions access or control just a few digital and analog pins and only a single pin at a time."

You can submit 3 commands at a time (and get 3 results as replay if it's a query), single shot. That's per SCPI standard. It works the same on a SCPI enabled DMM or oscilloscope.

e.g. set 3 pins:

DIGI:OUTP0 0; OUTP1 0; OUTP2 1\n

RE: LabVIEW Challenge – A Course in LabVIEW and Test Automation (Blog #1)

Jan Cumps — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 08:51:40 GMT

"in reviewing the Labview documentation, it would seem to be a great program for tying different pieces of test equipment together to automate testing of processes"

That sums it up. It can be many other things, but that's usually not a natural fit.

Automating long running tests, setting up product test beds, validation to specs - that kind of things it's good at.

"I would still like to explore the ability to add new functionality to the Pico. The actual road test duration was just too short to reach that goal,"

That is on purpose. The road test is about LabVIEW. Not about Pico development. Here's why there was a VI capable Pico added. To allow everyone to participate.

" I would like to try running two Picos that communicate between each other on my PC. The documentation implies the running of multicore devices with a single VI. From my preliminary tests, it appears that two Picos can be connected to the same PC only if each VI has a different name, even if they have the same function."

That's why each instrument has a unique URL (and why the URL that shows when opening the front pages doesn't match your device's connect string).
Multiple cores is not what will give you multiple instruments. There's still a single USB connector (TinyUSB doesn't have functionality yet to enumerate as more than one usbtmc device). It will allow you to do more work in parallel on that instrument.
The easiest at the moment is to program 2 Picos (they cost nothing) and they will both be available as a separate instrument.