Software Recommendations for Displaying Realtime Data

I did end up downloading the free Labview Community Edition. It worked right out of the box as you would expect from a NI product. I was able to run some of the old labjack Labview demos too.

I haven't used Labview in a very long time, I'm not sure what's changed. The sample labjack Labview VI's are exactly like what I remember Labview to be.

For me personally, graphical programing is 10 times harder than just writing a Matlab/Python script.

Hopefully, there are some simpler and cleaner examples with this Labview release.

Hi Scott,

I don't know of any other general-purpose blocks-based system with the rich support for instruments, but for a non-blocks alternative then I'd probably use Python too nowadays. Although having said that, I used MATLAB yesterday, it is quick and convenient if it's installed. It has an 'Instrument Control Toolbox' option with a form that will convert entries into code.

Here is where you can type up your queries, and it builds up a list of what you did.

Then, you can click on the 'Session Log' tab to see what MATLAB commands it translated to:

It is then possible to copy-paste that into functions or directly execute in the command prompt or add in your logic in code and so on, and a couple of clicks to chart stuff (a for loop would need to be written to capture, then click to chart it, or MATLAB code can be written to chart dynamically as the data arrives).

But if I wasn't using MATLAB and didn't need it's features, I'd probably do it in Python nowadays for personal projects/tests.

Although LabView is a good choice since it is designed for production/test environments, I have only used it briefly in one of my first jobs, so I would be stuck trying to use it now without some fresh experience.

I couldn't agree more that Matlab is the way to go in general. I started using Matlab without the instrument toolbox so I have continued on that path loading the VISA api as DLL in Matlab and then making my own instrument drivers:

https://github.com/sstobbe/mlab

% E3648A Dual Output Power Supply
vs = E3648A('GPIB0::5::INSTR');

% Ensure Output is disabled
vs.OUTPUT = 0;

% Configure Output Channel 1
%  Voltage Setpoint 5 VDC
%  Current Limit 1 ADC
vs.V1_SET = 5;
vs.I1_SET = 1;

% Configure Output Channel 2
%  Voltage Setpoint 15 VDC
%  Current Limit 100 mADC
vs.V2_SET = 15;
vs.I2_SET = .1;

Although I have other problems with the plot windows locking up while a script is running, and you can't really pan an zoom data and update the plots simultaneously. Its surprising difficult for how simple the task sounds.

I think I am going to take the time and tinker/relearn Labview. I think its going to take a long time to get everything up and running. But once it is setup I think I will be able to put together a live readout display very quickly and easily. Slowly some of the Labview details are coming back to me, such as the use of hieratical VI. So, I can modify the sample labjack demo just to output the voltage readings on a block terminal:

It doesn't work just yet, but hopefully it will be just this easy eventually:

I couldn't agree more that Matlab is the way to go in general. I started using Matlab without the instrument toolbox so I have continued on that path loading the VISA api as DLL in Matlab and then making my own instrument drivers:

https://github.com/sstobbe/mlab

% E3648A Dual Output Power Supply
vs = E3648A('GPIB0::5::INSTR');

% Ensure Output is disabled
vs.OUTPUT = 0;

% Configure Output Channel 1
%  Voltage Setpoint 5 VDC
%  Current Limit 1 ADC
vs.V1_SET = 5;
vs.I1_SET = 1;

% Configure Output Channel 2
%  Voltage Setpoint 15 VDC
%  Current Limit 100 mADC
vs.V2_SET = 15;
vs.I2_SET = .1;

Although I have other problems with the plot windows locking up while a script is running, and you can't really pan an zoom data and update the plots simultaneously. Its surprising difficult for how simple the task sounds.

I think I am going to take the time and tinker/relearn Labview. I think its going to take a long time to get everything up and running. But once it is setup I think I will be able to put together a live readout display very quickly and easily. Slowly some of the Labview details are coming back to me, such as the use of hieratical VI. So, I can modify the sample labjack demo just to output the voltage readings on a block terminal:

It doesn't work just yet, but hopefully it will be just this easy eventually: