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01Title.fm Page 1 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:19 PM
Getting Started
with
™
VirtualBench
Getting Started with VirtualBench
March 1997 Edition
Part Number 321518A-01
© Copyright 1997 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.
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01Title.fm Page 2 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:19 PM Internet Support support@natinst.com E-mail: info@natinst.com FTP Site: ftp.natinst.com Web Address: http://www.natinst.com Bulletin Board Support BBS United States: (512) 794-5422 BBS United Kingdom: 01635 551422 BBS France: 01 48 65 15 59 Fax-on-Demand Support (512) 418-1111 Telephone Support (U.S.) Tel: (512) 795-8248 Fax: (512) 794-5678 International Offices Australia 02 9874 4100, Austria 0662 45 79 90 0, Belgium 02 757 00 20, Canada (
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02Warr.fm Page 3 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:19 PM Important Information Warranty The media on which you receive National Instruments software are warranted not to fail to execute programming instructions, due to defects in materials and workmanship, for a period of 90 days from date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace software media that do not execute programming instructions if National Instrumen
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GSVBTOC.fm Page v Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Contents About This Manual Conventions Used in This Manual...................................................................................vii Customer Communication ...............................................................................................viii Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench VirtualBench Installation for Windows...........................................................................1-1 Minimum System Requirements
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GSVBTOC.fm Page vi Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Contents Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Front Panel Features........................................................................................................ 6-1 Measuring a Signal.......................................................................................................... 6-3 Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Waveform Generator Front Panel Features..................................................................... 7-1 Waveform E
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05ATM.fm Page vii Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM About This Manual The VirtualBench suite of tools is a high-performance, easy-to-use virtual instruments application program for Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, or Windows NT. Getting Started with VirtualBench gives you step-by-step instructions on how to use each instrument. It also includes a description of the front panel of each instrument. Conventions Used in This Manual The following conventions are used in this manual: bold Bo
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05ATM.fm Page viii Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM About This Manual paths Paths in this manual are denoted using backslashes (\) to separate drive names, directories, and files, as in C:\dir1name\dir2name\filename. This icon to the left of bold, italicized text denotes a note, which alerts you to important information. Customer Communication National Instruments wants to receive your comments on our products and manuals. We are interested in the applications you develop with our produ
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06Chap01.fm Page 1 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Chapter Welcome to VirtualBench 1 Welcome to VirtualBench, a suite of high-performance, easy-to-use virtual instruments for Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, and Windows NT. This document contains installation instructions, lists of system requirements and new features, and updated information to help you get started with VirtualBench. VirtualBench Installation for Windows You must install VirtualBench along with two other items: • A
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06Chap01.fm Page 2 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench • NI-DAQ 4.9.0 if you plan to use an AT-DSP2200, AT-A2150, or EISA-A2000 DAQ device • NI-DAQ 5.0 or later if you plan to use Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later, or if you plan to use any of the following new DAQ devices: – PCI-MIO-16E-1 – AT-DIO-32HS – PCI-MIO-16E-4 – AT-5102 – PCI-MIO-16XE-10 – AT-5411 – PCI-MIO-16XE-50 – DAQCard-5102 – PCI-1200 – DAQCard-40
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06Chap01.fm Page 3 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Note: It is recommended that you not run other applications while you install VirtualBench. 3. Insert Disk 1 into your 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. 4. Select Run from the File menu in the Program Manager. 5. Enter A:setup or B:setup (depending on the pathname of your floppy disk drive) in the input box and click on OK. 6. Follow the instructions that appear in the dialog boxes. Installing VirtualBench unde
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06Chap01.fm Page 4 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:20 PM Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench What Is Installed by the Setup Program If you purchased the full VirtualBench suite, the setup program installs the VirtualBench engine and nine virtual instruments: the oscilloscope (Scope), dynamic signal analyzer (DSA), digital multimeter (DMM), function generator (FG), logger, arbitrary waveform generator (Arb), DC analog output controller (AODC), digital input/output controller (DIO), and device c
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06Chap02.fm Page 1 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter VirtualBench-Scope 2 In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Scope by double-clicking on the Scope icon in the VirtualBench window within the Program Manager. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-Scope by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench»VirtualBench-Scope. Front Panel Features Vertical Channel Slider Selector Channel Settings Time Base Trigger Settings Group Graphics Main Control Bar Display © National Instruments
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06Chap02.fm Page 2 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope The front panel of VirtualBench-Scope has the following features: • Channel Selector— selects a waveform for display on the Graphics display. • Channel Settings—adjusts the vertical sensitivity of the selected channel. Turning the knob clockwise increases the sensitivity (each vertical division represents a smaller voltage value). • Timebase —allows you to change the timebase setting. Turning the knob clockw
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06Chap02.fm Page 3 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope Acquiring Data You can start acquiring signals with VirtualBench-Scope by completing the following steps: 1. Connect a signal to the Channel 0 input of your National Instruments DAQ device. See the user manual of your DAQ device for details. For example, on a 68-pin MIO E-series device, connect a signal to pins 68 (ACH0) and 67 (AIGND) for a Referenced Single Ended input. 2. Configure VirtualBench-Scope. a.
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06Chap02.fm Page 4 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope d. Click on OK to use these settings. 3. Save your settings by selecting Edit»Save Settings from the pull-down menu on the front panel. Enter the name of the file you want to save, for example MyScope.set. Note: When you launch VirtualBench-Scope, it automatically uses the settings from when you last used VirtualBench-Scope. 4. Enable the CH 1 button in the Channel Selector (Acquire) group. Make sure all ot
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06Chap03.fm Page 1 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter VirtualBench-Logger 3 In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Logger by double-clicking on the Logger icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.0, you launch VirtualBench-Logger by selecting Start»Programs»VirtualBench»VirtualBench-Logger. Front Panel Features Status Strip Chart Legend Display Display Control Y Axis Select Control Channel Select Acquire Performance Data Indicator Controls © National Instruments
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06Chap03.fm Page 2 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger The front panel of VirtualBench-Logger has the following features: • Strip Chart Display—displays the logged data. • Y-Axis Select Controls— selects which channel Y scale to display on either the left or right Y axis of the Strip Chart Display. • Status Display—shows the Current Time, Start Time, and Stop Time of the current data acquisition. • Channel Select Control— selects which channels to display on the
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06Chap03.fm Page 3 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger Acquiring Data You can start acquiring data with VirtualBench-Logger by following these steps: 1. Connect several known voltage signals to the input channels of your DAQ device. See the user manual of your DAQ device for details. It is recommended that you use known reference signals to verify proper operation of VirtualBench-Logger and your DAQ device. 2. Configure VirtualBench-Logger. a. Select Settings
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06Chap03.fm Page 4 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger d. Set the channel attributes for each channel from the Start to End Channel. Give each channel an appropriate label for easy identification on the Strip Chart display. e. Click on the File Config button. Specify the name of the Log file where the logged data is stored on disk. Specify the location of this file by using the Browse button. Select Enable Logging and Begin Logging on Start. Click on OK. f. Cl
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06Chap03.fm Page 5 Friday, February 28, 1997 3:21 PM Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger g. Click on OK in the Logger Settings dialog box to return to the front panel. 3. Select the channels that you want to display on the strip chart using the Channel Select Control. 4. Use the right and left Y-axis Controls to select the display channels Y scale to display on the strip chart. 5. Click on Start in the Data Acquisition Controls area. The VirtualBench-Logger begins acquiring data at one-second i
