Dave,
VI Logger does log to a database, although it is not a generic database like Oracle or Access. VI Logger only stores data to the NI Citadel database. Citadel was originally written for use with our Lookout and LabVIEW DSC products as a high throughput database for logging measurement data. It is still used by those products and VI Logger. While it is a proprietary database (a drawback of the design for measurement data and for speed), there are a few ways to access the data in it:
- The Historical data graph in VI Logger that allows you to browse through the data you have acquired.
- New for VI Logger 2.0 is the View in Excel button / popup option that takes the data visible on the VI Logger graph and exports it to Excel.
- There is a pop up option in the VI Logger tree of tasks and data runs that allows you to export to text files. Easily to delimited data or html, but you also use a custom text format.
- NI DIAdem can also be used to generate custom reports and analysis from the VI Logger data stored in Citadel, through the View in DIAdem button.
- If you have LabVIEW installed, VI Logger will install a set of VIs that allow you to read the data stored in the Citadel database and you can then analyze it, etc.
VI Logger is a stand-alone data logger application designed for people who want to do data logging and retrieval without having to write a program. It may not fit your requirements if you have to log to a certain database format or need to share data in a certain way, that isn't already part of VI Logger. This would require using a programming language such as LabVIEW to write a program so you can have the data stored in what ever format you want.
If you've evaluated VI Logger 1.x, you should take a look at the new
2.0 version that released a couple of weeks ago. There will be an evaluation version of it for download very soon.
Kennon Cotton
Group Manager VI Logger R&D
National Instruments
Message Edited by Support on 05-29-2007 03:10 PM