Subtle Problems in Multilevel USB Hubs

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
A project recently got me through tough times.  We have connected almost all instruments using USB and ended up using multilevel USB hubs.  The hardware connection is something like below.  We thought that everything will be fine because All of these USB ports are detected by Windows without any issues The payload of these instruments' data are very low and We're able to test all these instruments in modular level. However we faced some subtle issues which is not lucid at the beginning. (more…)
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How to use FTDI FT4222H in LabVIEW

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
There is a very good device named FT4222H from FTDI Chip which can be used for multi-interfaces like GPIO, I2C, SPI, Interrupt.  The nicest thing is you could access all those communication protocols directly using LabVIEW.  Generally speaking, if you work with a controlling application where your end-device uses such protocols, you could use this device to communicate with the end-device and make the life easier and design would be low cost too (device costs only $2.30). [caption id="attachment_617" align="alignright" width="200"] Fig. FTDI FT4222H Device Image[/caption] GPIO Interrupt I2C Master I2C Slave SPI Master SPI Slave Initially I assumed that this device would be straight forward to use for my application which required three of those features viz.. a master I2C, a GPIO and an Interrupt.  However, it turned out…
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Data Logging and Traceable Data

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
One of the important criteria to consider while designing the data logging is the traceability of the data in future, in relative to the device/product under test.  Some logging is required only for temporary purpose but some data are required even till the end of the device life cycle.  A traceable data is required if you think you're logging product level details and and it needs to be persistent till the death of that product. Few scenarios where you would need traceable data are... When the product is out to end customers and end customers logs you with some defects with the product, you would need to trace back what exactly happened to the product during the testing phase using the traceable data.  Or whether there is similar pattern of…
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Log Any LabVIEW data to CSV File or SQLite DB

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
Have you ever tried to log your LabVIEW data to CSV or SQLite?  While logging your data from LabVIEW to a CSV/SQLite database, have you ever wanted to avoid the daunting job of creating the DB schema or creating the CSV headers for logging?  How daunting is the job of converting the LabVIEW data to CSV strings or SQLite data types?  We use to spend a lot of time for that.  Isn't it? Here is a tool which I have created recently can ease this logging activity in LabVIEW.  This is simple table logger which logs all your data to only one table (Yes! even your array data will be logged in the same table with other data). All you need to do is wire your LabVIEW data to the…
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LabVIEW + Virtual MachineBenefit 1: Isolated OS environments for each project, thus reduced deployment issues.

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
In my last blog post, I said about a few key benefits of developing LabVIEW in Virtual Machines (VMs) like VirtualBox. Here is some details about first key benefit I realized. VMs provides a workflow for developers to separate the various projects in individual environments which eventually reduce the deployment issues.Some of the deployment issues which are faced while delivering LabVIEW application to a customer areMissing or unsupported software tools in the customer(deployment) PCIncompatible or mismatching software installed in deployment PCScenario Example: As depicted in above figure, let's consider that we have three project X,Y,Z which goes to three different customers and consider that each customer has different licenses from NI. Hence their LabVIEW version (2017,2016,2014) gets differed for each different project. All three different relies on a specific version…
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Virtual Machines for #LabVIEW Development

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
Virtual machines (VMs) are applications which can mimic your real PC and enable you to run individual virtual PC under another operating system (Windows/Mac/Linux) .It's popular for various reasons among users, and each user would say their own merit/demerit experience with VMs.Various VM applications are out there in market. Some of popular ones areVirtualBox from Oracle (Opensource)Workstation Player from VMware (Free basic version and paid premium version)Hyper-V from Microsoft (I used it for free in Windows 8)Parallels (for Mac machines)A Mac cum LabVIEW users would be quite familiar with Virtual Machines and Parallels because they had to run LabVIEW in Windows environment and Parallels is the one which offered that flexibility. However a windows user may not need to start using LabVIEW with VM as most of the LabVIEW offering…
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No need to install FPGA compilers to review or edit your FPGA VIs

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
Sometimes we just want to review or edit the FPGA VIs in LabVIEW project, but there will be huge stopping point of installing whole FPGA in the PC which might takes ages to install and also consumes too much of the disk spaces. FPGA compilers would take as much as 20+ GB. This would essentially include FPGA Farm compiler, ISE and Vivado compilers.One way to escape so much of installation time and saving the disk space is to carefully un-check the FPGA compiler during installation process. The general practice we follow for the team is that, we only install FPGA module in individual development PCs of team members and dedicate a separate PC which does the compilation process. In the dedicated compiler PC we would need to install all FPGA…
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3 quote recap from Mom’s wisdom on #MothersDay

Blogs, LabVIEW Blog
Today is Mother's day. Mom is always a special space with love in whatever place you're at. On this special day, I would like to recall 3 key lessons she's given me.#1 : Tolerance & PatienceQuote in Tamil : "பொறுத்தார் பூமி ஆள்வார்"Pronounced as "Poruthaar boomi aalvaarr"Meaning: Those who is patient and tolerant rules the worldAt times I wonder how my mom is able to tolerate the harsh & wounding words from others. When the same words thrown at me, I become easily intolerable and burst out in reflex. The patience and tolerance seems to be seeping in me after I become dad which tells silently "this harsh moment will also pass by and there is more admirable moments around this little harsh moments". Lately I found how much I can…
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