Books for LabView 2011.

[kat_se_gat]

Hi all, my first post so I hope it's in the right place.

I've seen a number of books on earlier editions of LV and a few I saw at a UK bookshop that were last revised around 2006. We've downloaded the 30-day trial at work of version 2011. Can anyone comment about the existing books? If I wanted to get a newbie book would I be too far behind the game if I opted for any that are say, five years out of date compared to the 2011 version?

I know book recommendations are personal viewpoints but can anyone suggest a good newbie book that leaves some room for growth. The books are really expensive in the UK so I'd like to buy right, first time.

Many thanks.

Peter.

[altenbach]

For a first glimpse, you might want to skip the books and start with some online tutorials. For example here.

More resources are discussed in this thread.

What are your interests in LabVIEW? What kind of programming are you trying to do with LabVIEW? (Student projects? Signal processing? instrument control? robotics? recreational math?)

Just dive in and start with a few simple programming problems and ask here if you get stuck. We'll point you in the right direction. 😄

> We've downloaded the 30-day trial ...

Who are "we"? Is this a company?

[kat_se_gat]

Altenbach,

Thanks for the heads-up on the tuts, etc. When I say "we", I'm referring to our company. We currently have a number of projects developed in Testpoint which were going to be converted into C# and DotNet. Our projects communicate with Agilent 34970 data loggers using GPIB cards and we have a 34972 which has an ethernet connection. We've converted two projects into C# but the biggest problem is the development time. In these test conditions, C# is not the best environment to hand-roll the conversions. We're looking into using LV 2011 and we've put in a budget for licences and training but that's possibgly a few months away, I don't know for sure. We'd use C# for the extra code to complement the programs which add the value we need to do whilst letting us protect proprietery content. There may be other data loggers we'd look at but the idea of writing another layer of code in C# is not ideal when seemingly, LV has much of that available and there are lots of VIs we could look at using. I'm not bashing C# as it's something I've used since 2003 but there are times when native C# has a high cost attached to it. Anyway, less of the history lesson and more about LV.

As I wrote, we've got the 30-day evaluation copies of LV 2011. So far, I've dabbled with some of the online tuts. I'd really like to try cobbling something together that can talk to our Agilent loggers but I reckon I need to totter around first. A good reference book adds a lot of value. Also, if the book doesn't work out, then I've got something I can stand my monitor on top of. 😉

[Rodéric]

If you wanna get started with LabVIEW I would suggest "LabVIEW For Everyone" it really helped me. Don't bother for the LV version the basic stuff didn't change.

Like Altenbach said, online tuts are also a good way to get your hands on LabVIEW.

[smercurio_fc]

There are drivers available in IDNET for the instruments that you are using, so you can get a good head-start by going over there and getting them. This will allow you to immediately control the instruments.

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=014F4CD7EF78136AE0440003BA7CCD...

As for the C#/LabVIEW debate: that's an internal debate that you will need to resolve. I am quite familiar with C# and (obviously) LabVIEW. There are some things that I would not want to do with C# and some things that I would not want to do with LabVIEW. Each language has its strengths and weaknesses. For typical Windows-style programming, C# is the obvious choice (between the two that we are talking about). When it comes to instrument control, LabVIEW has a far better track records. Although if you have far more in-house skill with C#, then you might want to consider looking at Measurement Studio, which provides a framework for developing in Visual Studio.

[Rhys_CKTC]

Hi! I bought the Labview for everyone book by Jeffrey Travis and Jim Kring third ed. Great book for a beginner like myself! Often see myself looking back to the book. Also, i have been programming LV for the agilent 34970A via serial connections. The exmaples that come with the instrument driver are good. Ive been using the examples as a base and developing from them. Rhys, South Wales.