Is it possible to access motherboard's built in temperature sensors using labview?

[psmorris]

Hi All,

I'm trying to monitor the ambient temperature in a PC case using the motherboard's built in monitoring chip (in my case it's a Winbond W83627DHG). I can do this with a third party application (SpeedFan) but was wondering if I can do this using labview?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Paul

[Yamaeda]

If Speedfan has an ActiveX inteface it's quite simple. 🙂

/Y

[smercurio_fc]

This question has come up before. Did you try a search? Ultimately the answer is that you have to see what's compatible with your specific motherboard. On Windows there's the WMI API that can be used, but not all hardware is supported (motherboards like the ones from Dell are typically not supported). Some third-party apps may have an external API, like ActiveX, which allow you to programmatically control them. Even in this case motherboards from companies like Dell aren't supported simply because Dell makes non-standard motherboards.

[smercurio_fc]

Update: This appears to be a cross-post from LAVA: http://lavag.org/topic/14703-accessing-motherboard-sensors-via-labview/

If you cross-post, please say so. Some of us go on both sites, and don't like answering the same question on both boards, or providing an answer that has already been given. Twice.

[psmorris]

Sorry for not referencing the cross post.

I'm using an Intel board (D525MW - atom based), so don't know whether the windoes WMI API can help. Coud you point me in the direction for using the WMI API within labview so I can see if it does? Accessing external code is one those things I've just never had to do a lot of.

Thanks again for your help

Paul

[smercurio_fc]

An example using VBScript was posted in this response: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/how-to-read-the-CPU-temperatures-of-a-RT-PC-LabVIEW-RT/m-p/707380#M3.... WMI will only work if the motherboard manufacturer specifically provided support for it. I have no idea if Intel did that with that board. 

[paul_a_cardinale]

This works with some systems, but not all.

[smercurio_fc]

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@paul_a_cardinale wrote:

This works with some systems, but not all.

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I was going to try to work on an example of using .NET to access WMI, but you beat me to it.  Doesn't work on my computer, but then I'm using a Dell at home, so that's not too surprising.

[Circuitmage]

 Shows temp on i5 but it looks static.

[Circuitmage]

Another solution using a variation of this VI;

OK, so here is my solution for gathering temperate information via Labview (unfinished but working) in abit more detail;

1)      I found an open source program called Open Hardware Monitor that captures a ton of data from the motherboard

http://openhardwaremonitor.org/

2)      It has some accompanying information to access this data via .net using WMI (windows management instrumentation)

http://openhardwaremonitor.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/OpenHardwareMonitor-WMI.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Management_Instrumentation

3)      I modified the VI above (CPU_Temp.vi) to access the Open Hardware Monitor data. This is pulling an array of 54 pieces of data, of which you can expand and

choose what you want to collect.

So, in short, while Open Hardware Monitor is running (and feeding the WMI), this VI captures and parses the data.

Someone also finished a VI using another 3^rd party program “Speedfan”, but I have not tried that yet;

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Acquiring-CPU-Temperature-in-LV/m-p/2436280/highlight/true#M749920