FlexLogger

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Hello,

 

So a while back at my new company (been here 6 months) I stumbled across and old cRIO with a few cards.  I was intrigued because we used a ton of NI equipment at my last job and I knew how easy it was to use (from a technician standpoint of being able to plug and play a new instrument/card if something starts failing...I never was on the designing/building systems side of things).  I'm not getting much support from management in trying to learn more and implement some NI stuff, but I just recently also came across an old cDAQ-9174 and I've been looking into FlexLogger recently.  I know it can record/log data and you can view it in real time, but can you also use it to create simple test scripts?  I'm wanting to do something during the trial period using FlexLogger to justify to management that this is something to seriously look into.  I've got some Digital I/O cards, thermocouple inputs, analog inputs, and digital output cards.  Can I use FlexLogger and some of these cards to act like a PLC, combined with a test script, to test a board using simple "switches" to verify it works properly (give it a signal that only goes through if a specific safety feature is "on")?

 

Or do I need to delve into LabVIEW to do what I'm wanting?  I don't know LabVIEW and ultimately what I'm trying to do is convince management that NI equipment is worth the investment and pay for my LabVIEW Core 1 and Core 2 classes that I'd like to take.

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Great question! To help us answer your question better, could you give a quick, generic version of a test script you'd want to be able to perform (just in written form, no code required)?

Jarrod S.
National Instruments
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I hadn't even thought of it, yet.  It was more of an idea.  Also, I should probably point out what the board is: it's essentially the brains behind the electronics of a lawn mower - drive-by-wire for the transmission from the lap bars, safety features, e-kill of the engine, etc.  Essentially the steps involved would be, roughly:

 

Turn on unit

Toggle all safety features on/off/on

Ensure "mower" is ready to be turned on

Send/receive start signal for the engine

Receive signal when safety features like brake or lap-bar neutral are disengaged

Send/receive CAN signal from high-speed-actuator

Ensure high-speed-actuator is turning transmission at proper degrees

Turn on/off switches like speed hi/low, deck motor, or headlights

E-kill engine if operator present safety goes from "true" to "false"

 

It's not a complex system in terms of switches...the complexity comes in the software for the high-speed-actuators (which I'm not dealing with thankfully).  I'm just wanting to create a setup to test this board to ensure it does what it's supposed to.  I hope this helps/makes sense!

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Accepted by topic author brethigh

Thanks for the context. This is very helpful. Quick summary on how FlexLogger can help you:

  • FlexLogger is a useful tool for running these types of tests manually without having to program anything. You can use screen controls and indicators to toggle digital lines, send CAN messages, and check the state of your engine.
  • FlexLogger has some built-in capabilities like Events and reset values for outputs, which can set output line values based on some condition. For instance, you could build in an E-Stop-type condition to reset a group of analog or digital lines to a specified value if a condition occurred.
  • FlexLogger doesn't have built-in support for creating test scripts that would let you automate the actions you described, however...
  • FlexLogger has capabilities to exchange tag data with other applications like LabVIEW or TestStand which could be used to author tests. This would require you to learn how to use those tools (or find someone who already does), but it would be much easier to write a simple test script in them than to program your whole test that performs I/O, logging, and visualization. If you have LabVIEW downloaded, you could run a simple example mentioned here to get an idea.

Hope this helps!

Jarrod S.
National Instruments
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Jarrod,

 

Thanks for the info!  Unfortunately I don't already know LabVIEW.  I'm trying to convince management that it's something worth pursuing and spending the resources to train someone (*cough* me *cough*) on how to use LabVIEW.  I'll look through all of the links you posted and hopefully I can work something out.  Again, thank you!

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