VirtualBench

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Can the VB-8012 be used as a function generator and an oscilloscope at the same time?

Solved!
Go to solution

I was wondering if anyone had successfully used multiple virtual instruments simultaneously

0 Kudos
Message 1 of 4
(4,321 Views)
Solution
Accepted by topic author usrfrnly

Yes! All five of the instruments can be used simultaneously. For instance you could have a board that needs power and a digital high on a couple lines while you check current with a DMM or scope a few outputs. While getting comfortable with the software interface, a quick test is often just placing a BNC cable in loopback between the FGEN and Scope.

An example of using multiple instruments with the Windows application:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=667K68UmvXs 

 

The NI-VirtualBench API can also be used to program all five of the instruments. The tail end of this video shows an example of automating both the FGEN and the Scope to perform a Bode analysis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNSmXQuuMlA

 

Michael Keane
National Instruments
0 Kudos
Message 2 of 4
(4,310 Views)

usrfrnly,

 

Absolutely!  VirtualBench (all models) is designed for each instrument to be able to be used simultaneously and independently.  This means you can use the DC power supply to provide power to a device under test, provide some stimulus with the function generator, and measure using the mixed-signal oscilloscope and digital multimeter.

 

If you plan to use it interactively I would suggest simply opening the app which provides basic control for all of the instruments.  If you wanted to automate it, you can run each of the instruments seperately through the APIs, plus you can still open the app to monitor everything.

 

Hope that answers your question, but reply if not.

 

Daniel Larsen

Digital Hardware Engineer

National Instruments

0 Kudos
Message 3 of 4
(4,306 Views)

Thanks, all. I couldn't figure it out from the manual so i turned to the hive mind.

0 Kudos
Message 4 of 4
(4,296 Views)