LabVIEW for LEGO MINDSTORMS and LabVIEW for Education

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ME Student needs guidance

I am a mechanical engineering student that wants to gain experience using LabVIEW. By gaining experience using LabVIEW, I hope to find a mechanical engineer testing job that uses LabVIEW.


I have already taken an instrumentation class where LabVIEW programming was a large portion of the class. To independently further my studies, I have been considering buying some “inexpensive as possible” tools to help improve my LabVIEW skills. Here are the two options that I am considering:


*Buy Lego Mindstorms and use it with LabVIEW student edition


*Buy USB-6008 and other inexpensive electrical components to be used with LabVIEW student edition


I have already purchased LabVIEW student edition for the class that I took.


I need your opinion. What do you think is my best option and why?

 

Thanks

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Lego NXT Mindstorms includes the LabView  IDE and some Blocks to control the

motors and sensors. 

 

There are several ways to get the hardware work.  When you like LabView then

everything you need is on the CD.

 

 

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Well, I can see both sides of the coin here. Are you interested in gaining experience only with LabVIEW? Or are you also interested in gaining experience with real, industrial hardware?

 

On one hand, it is unlikely you're going to encounter the LEGO NXT in many real-world engineering environments. It is much more likely that you'll be asked to control and acquire data from complicated measurement devices. In this sense, the USB-6008 will be a better choice. However, the 6008 doesn't really do anything on its own -- the idea is to hook it up to other sensors. If you don't have easy access to other sensors to play around with, buying them might be expensive.

 

On the other hand, the LEGO NXT gives you a more complete platform to experiment with. The kit comes with a few sensors, and several others are available from companies like Mindsensors and HiTechnic. But as I mentioned, it isn't "industrial grade" and simplifies some things that you'll need to know when you get a real job.

 

If you're only interested in gaining software experience, the NXT is probably a better choice. But if you think the hardware experience would be useful, you should consider whether a 6008 (and perhaps a couple of thermocouples or strain gauges) is worth the additional expense.

------
James Blair
NI R&D
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