I need to increment through specific values during a ramping cycle.

[huskeraztec]

In more detail.  I am ramping up an elgar power supply to a max current, then down to an operation current, and back to 0.  During the ramping up to max current I need to pause and take a measurement from the fluke 45 at 15 locations that the user will be prompt to enter. I also need to save the data to an excel file.  How do increment through these 15 selectable values?  The elagar has VI as does the Fluke. 

[RLD]

Are you ramping the Elgar with a LabVIEW app or using a ramp function built into the Elgar?  You didn't say how fast the ramp is or the time between the 15 measurement points.  To read with the Fluke 45 I think you will need to write a LabVIEW program that steps the Elgar along a software ramp and taking a Fluke read at the predefined points along the ramp.  If you are using GPIB it's going to take something like 10 to 50 milliseconds per step depending on the hardware.

Otherwise, you could use a DAQ card to read the current at "small" intervals then afterward evaluate the current readings at the 15 points.

Rich

[huskeraztec]

I am using a LabView app supplied by elgar, but it just ramps up from initial to final and has a user input for the duration of the ramp.  The time between ramps would be the total time into 15 segments pluss the 10-50 milliseconds the GPIB would take to transfere the data.  The Fluke also has labview drivers and will be placed in the ramp loop. 

What I have done is made an array with the current (amps) values and then made a for loop with the ramping VI placed inside, after the Elgar ramping vi I will place the Fluke 45 Vi to take the measurement.  This seems like it will work except the Elgar VI needs an initial and final current which brings me to my question.

Is their a way to increment one array to give the initial current and then the final current in the same loop itteration.  I want to take the 1st and 2nd value, then the second and third, then the third and the fourth all the way to the 15th value and the 1st value before the for loop is finished.

Initial ----- Final

   0               5    amps

   5               10  amps

  10              15  amps

[Dennis_Knutson]

It sounds like all you need is a cluster array. You can also use two separate arrays if they have the same number of dimensions.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 09-18-2006 08:54 AM

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 09-18-2006 08:55 AM

[huskeraztec]

I thought of two different arrays, but I need to have these values changeable by the user at the begining of the testing cycle, and they dont what to enter 30 numbers everytime.

I like the cluser array, where do I find it,  I must be overlooking this array.  Or did you build this array?

[huskeraztec]

Found it thanks,  I don't think the sleep is out my eyes yet.

[huskeraztec]

okay, thought I found what you did, but I did not.  I am using LabView 7.0 

[Dennis_Knutson]

If you want a front panel control, first select 'Cluster' from the Array and Cluster controls palette. Then, create a couple of numeric controls and drag them into the cluster. Then, create a front panel array control and drag the cluster into that. I did essentially the same thing but I did it with block diagram constants.

[huskeraztec]

Thanks I am building this up and will let you know.  One more question, can one put globals into an array.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You can use the build array on global or local variables but you can't create a front panel control or block diagram constant that references global/local variables. Why do you want to?