I need to monitor a transducer block parameter and save it to a CSV file.

[wpinson]

How can I monitor a transducer block parameter and save it to a CSV file?  The reason is that I need to do some long-term testing of an FFb device we are developing, and I need to read the primary output parameter of the transducer block (not the scheduled AI block) every second or two and save to a CSV file.

I have tried to figure out a way to do that with FBUS Configurator, unsuccessfully, and I purchased FBUS Monitor, as that was recommended by an industry expert, but I have been unsuccessful at getting that to work as well.

[GregGao]

Hi Wpinson,

Neither FBUS Configurator nor Monitor can meet your requirement. However, there are other approaches. NI-FBUS provides APIs for C, LabVIEW, VB and C#. You can use these APIs to read a parameter value of any block and use standard file IO functions to save the date into CSV file. The LabVIEW APIs are highly recommended because they are easy-to-use and LabVIEW also provides APIs for CSV file operations. You can build the application w/ LabVIEW in a short time.

You can find the examples of the FBUS APIs in the following folders:

1. C: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-FBUS\MS Visual C\examples

2. VB: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-FBUS\MS Visual Basic\example

3. C#: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI-FBUS\MS .NET\examples\CsharpExample

4. LabVIEW: search "fieldbus" in the LabVIEW example finder.

[wpinson]

Is it possible to use Trend Monitor, save the trend data, and then convert that to a CSV file, or other Excel-readable format?

[GregGao]

Sorry, it is NOT possible. The file (.tdm) saved by Trend Monitor is a internal binary file which only can be opened with Trend Monitor. It can NOT be converted into CSV or any other text format.

[wpinson]

Folks, I keep getting 'no's' for the NI software - why this won't work or that.  I need a solution, one that doesn't require a development project.  It seems to me to be a typical need, to simply monitor and record a parameter value for an FFb sensing device.  It's hard to believe that there isn't a straightforward solution out there.

It sounds to me like no one has ever CE marked an FFb device.  If they had, they would have had to monitor a function block output while doing EMC testing.

[LewisL]

Hi wpinson,

Sorry for the late reply.

Although I think it does not take too much effort in realizing this using existing examples as reference, we did not realize your case to be a common case for using the examples.

We'll consider adding your case in future examples, which could be a solution to your needs as well.

Thanks for your understanding.