Instruction/ maintenance manual of the product VirtualBench National Instruments
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Getting Started with VirtualBench ™ Getting Started with VirtualBench March 1997 Edition Part Number 321518A-01 © Copyright 1997 National Instruments Corporation.
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© National Instruments Corporation v Getting Started with VirtualBench Contents About This Manual Conventions Used in This Manual ................................................................................... vii Customer Communication .........
Contents Getting Started with VirtualBench vi © National Instruments Corporation Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Front Panel Features ........................................................................................................ 6-1 Measuring a Signal .
© National Instruments Corporation vii Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 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.
Ge tt i ng S ta r te d w i th V ir t ua lB e nc h viii © National Instruments Corporation About This Manual paths Paths in this manual are denoted using backslashes () to separate drive names, directories, and files, as in C:dir1namedir 2namefilename .
© National Instruments Corporation 1-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Welcome to VirtualBench, a suite of high-performance, easy-to-use virtual instruments for Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, and Windows NT.
Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Getting Started with VirtualBench 1-2 © National Instruments Corporation • 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.
Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench © National Instruments Corporation 1-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 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.
Chapter 1 Welcome to VirtualBench Getting Started with VirtualBench 1-4 © National Instruments Corporation What Is Installed by the Setup Program If you purchased the full VirtualBench suite, the set.
© National Instruments Corporation 2-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Scope by double-clicking on the Scope icon in the VirtualBench window within the Program Manager.
Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope Getting Started with VirtualBench 2-2 © National Instruments Corporation 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 select ed channel.
Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope © National Instruments Corporation 2-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 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.
Chapter 2 VirtualBench-Scope Getting Started with VirtualBench 2-4 © National Instruments Corporation 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.
© National Instruments Corporation 3-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger 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.
Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger Getting Started with VirtualBench 3-2 © National Instruments Corporation The front panel of VirtualBench-Logger has the following features: • Strip Chart Display — displays the logged data.
Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger © National Instruments Corporation 3-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 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.
Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger Getting Started with VirtualBench 3-4 © National Instruments Corporation 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.
Chapter 3 VirtualBench-Logger © National Instruments Corporation 3-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 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.
© National Instruments Corporation 4-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DSA (Dynamic Signal Analyzer) by double-clicking on the DSA icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-2 © National Instruments Corporation log/linear mode, phase unit, and markers in this control.
Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA © National Instruments Corporation 4-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Acquiring and Measuring Signals You can start acquiring and measuring signals with VirtualBench-DSA by following these steps: 1. Connect a signal to the Channel 0 or 1 input of your DAQ device.
Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-4 © National Instruments Corporation f. Click on the Acquisition tab in the DSA Settings dialog box. g. Set the Frame Size control to 1024. VirtualBench-DSA will analyze data in blocks of 1024 points.
Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA © National Instruments Corporation 4-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h j. Click on the Triggering tab in the DSA Settings dialog box. k. Set the Trigger Type to none. This setting puts the acquisition in a Freerun mode.
Chapter 4 VirtualBench-DSA Getting Started with VirtualBench 4-6 © National Instruments Corporation Display Control. Check your signal connections if data is still not visible. 10. Click on Run . VirtualBench-DSA continuously acquires and displays frames of data.
© National Instruments Corporation 5-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-FG (Function Generator) by double-clicking on the FG icon in the VirtualBench program group. In Windows 95/NT 4.
Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG Getting Started with VirtualBench 5-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Waveform Modifier Controls —modifies some of the properties of the waveform. – Duty Cycle —adjusts the duty cycles of the Sine Wave, Square Wave, and Triangle Wave.
Chapter 5 VirtualBench-FG © National Instruments Corporation 5-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 2. Connect a device or scope to the output of the analog output device that you specified in step one. See your DAQ device user manual for details.
© National Instruments Corporation 6-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DMM (Digital Multimeter) by double-clicking on the DMM icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-2 © National Instruments Corporation – Current AC — measures the AC component of a current source. – Ohms — measures resistance. – Temperature — measures tem perature. – Diode — measures the voltage drop across a diode.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Measuring a Signal You can start measuring signals with VirtualBench-DMM by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-DMM. a. Select Settings from the Edit menu on the front panel.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-4 © National Instruments Corporation c. Click on Run . VirtualBench-DMM continuously acquires and displays voltage measurements in the display window.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h i. Check to see that the input signal does not exceed the range of your DAQ device, and that the input signal does not exceed the selected range, when the DMM display shows +CLIP or -CLIP.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM Getting Started with VirtualBench 6-6 © National Instruments Corporation c. Select the Temperature tab. d. Select the type of sensor that you connected to the channel specified in step one, in substep "a", from the Temperature Sensor list.
Chapter 6 VirtualBench-DMM © National Instruments Corporation 6-7 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h 6. Measuring a diode. If you are using a DAQCard-4050 device, you may measure the voltage drop across a diode, up to two volts. a. Connect the diode to the terminals of the DAQCard-4050.
© National Instruments Corporation 7-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-Arb (Arbitrary Waveform Generator) by double-clicking on the Arb icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Amplitude Control — scales the waveform by a specified amount. • Offset Control —adds a voltage offset to the waveform. • Phase Control — shifts the waveform buffer by a certain phase, specified in degrees.
Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb © National Instruments Corporation 7-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h The Waveform Editor front panel of VirtualBench-Arb has the following features: • View Control — selects the waveform view displayed on the graph.
Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-4 © National Instruments Corporation Generating a Waveform You can start generating waveforms with VirtualBench-Arb by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-Arb. a. Select Settings from the Edit menu on the front panel.
Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb © National Instruments Corporation 7-5 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h c. Click on New Component . By default, every time you click on New Component , a new library component is added to any existing waveform.
Chapter 7 VirtualBench-Arb Getting Started with VirtualBench 7-6 © National Instruments Corporation c. Select Sketch from the Component Type control. d. Click on Draw . Notice that this changes from View to Component mode, so that only the current component is displayed.
© National Instruments Corporation 8-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-AODC (Analog Output Direct Current) by double-clicking on the AODC icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC Getting Started with VirtualBench 8-2 © National Instruments Corporation Controlling Analog Output You can start controlling analog output with VirtualBench-AODC by following these steps: 1. Configure VirtualBench-AODC. a.
Chapter 8 VirtualBench-AODC © National Instruments Corporation 8-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h d. Click on the AO Channels tab on the AODC Settings dialog box. e. Select the Range and Initial Voltage (V) or Current (mA) for each channel in the Channels list.
© National Instruments Corporation 9-1 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO In Windows 3.1x, you launch VirtualBench-DIO (Digital Input/Output) by double-clicking on the DIO icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO Getting Started with VirtualBench 9-2 © National Instruments Corporation • Hex Control — sets the digital state, in hexadecimal form, of the assigned digital port. The state of the digital port is not actually changed until the Write button is clicked on.
Chapter 9 VirtualBench-DIO © National Instruments Corporation 9-3 Ge t ti ng St a rt ed w it h V ir t ua l Be nc h c. Select the Device and SCXI Module that you want to use. The SCXI Module list is disabled if no SCXI modules are configured for the selected device.
© National Instruments Corporation 10-1 Get ti n g S t ar te d w it h V i rt u al Be n ch Chapter 10 VirtualBench- Device Calibrator In Windows 3.1x, you launch the VirtualBench-Device Calibrator by double-clicking on the Calibrate icon in the VirtualBench program group.
Chapter 10 Virtual Bench-Device Calibrator Getting Started with VirtualBench 10 -2 © National Instruments Corporation Calibrating a DAQ Device You can calibrate your device with VirtualBench-Device Calibrator by following these steps: 1. Wait at least 15 minutes after both your computer and device are powered on before calibrating your device.
© National Instruments Corporation A-1 Getting Started with VirtualBench Appendix Customer Communication For your convenience, this appendix contains forms to help you gather the information necessary to help us solve your technical problems and a form you can use to comment on the product documentation.
Fax-on-Demand is a 24-hour information retrieval system containing a library of documents on a wide range of technical information. You can access Fax-on-Demand from a touch-tone telephone at (512) 418-1111. You can submit technical support questions to the applications engineering team through e-mail at the Internet address listed below.
Technical Support Form Photocopy this form and update it each time you make changes to your software or hardware, an d use the completed copy of this form as a reference for your current configuration.
VirtualBench Hardware and Software Configuration Form Record the settings and revisions of your hardware and software on the line to the right of each item. Complete a new copy of this form each time you revise your software or hardware configuration, and use this form as a reference for your current configuration.
Documentation Comment Form National Instruments encourages you to comment on the documentation supplied with our products. This information helps us provide quality products to meet your needs.
An important point after buying a device National Instruments VirtualBench (or even before the purchase) is to read its user manual. We should do this for several simple reasons:
If you have not bought National Instruments VirtualBench yet, this is a good time to familiarize yourself with the basic data on the product. First of all view first pages of the manual, you can find above. You should find there the most important technical data National Instruments VirtualBench - thus you can check whether the hardware meets your expectations. When delving into next pages of the user manual, National Instruments VirtualBench you will learn all the available features of the product, as well as information on its operation. The information that you get National Instruments VirtualBench will certainly help you make a decision on the purchase.
If you already are a holder of National Instruments VirtualBench, but have not read the manual yet, you should do it for the reasons described above. You will learn then if you properly used the available features, and whether you have not made any mistakes, which can shorten the lifetime National Instruments VirtualBench.
However, one of the most important roles played by the user manual is to help in solving problems with National Instruments VirtualBench. Almost always you will find there Troubleshooting, which are the most frequently occurring failures and malfunctions of the device National Instruments VirtualBench along with tips on how to solve them. Even if you fail to solve the problem, the manual will show you a further procedure – contact to the customer service center or the nearest service center
