Kinda OT:Labview hobby use

[Marauder]

Just wondering if anyone has ever used LabView for hobby use, like shortwave
radio signal processing, etc.

[Labviewguru]

I use LabVIEW a great deal for "hobby" use. As for shortwave radio signal processing...can't say I've ever done that.

Most of what I do is use LabVIEW for internet scripting: pulling HTML content from various places and parsing out the information I need. If you have ever tried looking for a house to rent in San Diego, you would understand this. The Union Tribune, our local newspaper, is the WORST website in the world. It takes about 2 minutes to download a single page (of 25 entries) from their classifieds site. And that's after spending 5 minutes getting there... So, I scripted it, and now, in the time it takes to get one page, I get 5 pages or more.

Hope that helps...

[Tims]

Hi Marauda,

I created an all in one LV SINAD meter/Relative dB meter/Audio Spectum
Analyser/Scope that works with Sound cards, as a development tool at work, it is
turning out to be quite popular with the ham's and hobbiest.
I was originally developed in LV5.1 as just a SINAD meter, but has been
continually upgraded.

Tim

Marauder wrote:

> Just wondering if anyone has ever used LabView for hobby use, like shortwave
> radio signal processing, etc.

[wiebe@CARYA]

Hi,

I've made some games (galaxy, boulderdash) in LabVIEW.

It's also great for:

performing advanced search/replace operations in text files,
mass converting files (from rtf to txt, txt to html, etc.),
extra ordinary image processing,
file search,
debugging binairy formatted files,
etc.

LabVIEW is great for hobby, except for the price. You can (but are not
allowed to) copy it illegally, or download a trial edition and it's patch
(also not allowed).

It would be great to have a 'LabVIEW personal package' for <100$...

Regards,

Wiebe.




"Marauder" wrote in message
news:kJoh9.784$c87.78315@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> Just wondering if anyone has ever used LabView for hobby use, like
shortwave
> radio signal processing, et
c.
>
>
>

[Joey Oravec]

Actually, there is one loophole.

The NI license agreement, section 6, specifies that the primary user of a
copy at work is also allowed to install a copy at home. So as long as your
hobby is close enough to your work-function, then you're in ok shape.

But then again, I'm no lawyer...... so you might want to read the agreement
and decide what it means yourself.

-joey

"Wiebe@AIR" wrote in message
news:3d884d4e$0$34779$e4fe514c@dreader3.news.xs4all.nl...
> Hi,
>
> I've made some games (galaxy, boulderdash) in LabVIEW.
>
> It's also great for:
>
> performing advanced search/replace operations in text files,
> mass converting files (from rtf to txt, txt to html, etc.),
> extra ordinary image processing,
> file search,
> debugging binai
ry formatted files,
> etc.
>
> LabVIEW is great for hobby, except for the price. You can (but are not
> allowed to) copy it illegally, or download a trial edition and it's patch
> (also not allowed).
>
> It would be great to have a 'LabVIEW personal package' for <100$...
>
> Regards,
>
> Wiebe.
>
>
>
>
> "Marauder" wrote in message
> news:kJoh9.784$c87.78315@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> > Just wondering if anyone has ever used LabView for hobby use, like
> shortwave
> > radio signal processing, etc.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Labviewguru]

I have tried to convince NI of the usefulness of a smaller version of LabVIEW with a smaller price. My first pitch to them was a version stripped down for doing things like internet scripting and CGI programming. It would do two things, and accomplish a great deal. First, it would allow only some functions. Second, it would create smaller executables. It would have been cheap (<$500) and be fairly popular in my opinion.

If NI gets enough feedback saying that this is something people want, they might just listen.

By the way, I don't see NI discouraging home use of LabVIEW. As long as you use it in a way that helps you learn and market LabVIEW, and not for profit, there shouldn't be a problem. It may not be within the bounds of the licensing
agreement, but I don't see NI sending the police to your house because you are using LabVIEW to make games. Now, if you were selling those games, I'd guess that NI would be a bit upset.

[Blueeyedpop]

Most of my labview use is processing data that didn't come from some sort of
data acquisition hardware.

"Wiebe@AIR" wrote in message
news:3d884d4e$0$34779$e4fe514c@dreader3.news.xs4all.nl...
> Hi,
>
> I've made some games (galaxy, boulderdash) in LabVIEW.
>
> It's also great for:
>
> performing advanced search/replace operations in text files,
> mass converting files (from rtf to txt, txt to html, etc.),
> extra ordinary image processing,
> file search,
> debugging binairy formatted files,
> etc.
>
> LabVIEW is great for hobby, except for the price. You can (but are not
> allowed to) copy it illegally, or download a trial edition and it's patch
> (also not allowed).
>
> It would be great to have a 'LabVIEW personal package' for <100
$...
>
> Regards,
>
> Wiebe.
>
>
>
>
> "Marauder" wrote in message
> news:kJoh9.784$c87.78315@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> > Just wondering if anyone has ever used LabView for hobby use, like
> shortwave
> > radio signal processing, etc.
> >
> >
> >
>
>

[Marauder]

Joey Oravec wrote in message
news:3d888e9f@newsgroups....
> Actually, there is one loophole.
>
> The NI license agreement, section 6, specifies that the primary user of a
> copy at work is also allowed to install a copy at home. So as long as your
> hobby is close enough to your work-function, then you're in ok shape.
>
> But then again, I'm no lawyer...... so you might want to read the
agreement
> and decide what it means yourself.
>

Which is exactly what I did, but for the purpose of learning the language so
I could be able to make modifications to a system supplied by a vendor. We
did get the original copy of LV with the product code. Still a long way to
go. It is a rather large (from my limited experience) control and
data
acquisition system with NO documentation about file organization, structure,
purpose of each VI, etc. Some of the diagrams are huge, lots of case
structures. Some noise problems with SCXI 1100 too.

So I fgured as long as I had a copy at home I might try using it for radio
stuff too. I agree there should be a low buck version-working for a large
corporation like I do kind of spoils a person. Thanks for the input, and if
I have any questions I know where to come. But there may be some dumb ones!

[Ben]

Hobbies Yes, radio no.

I have exercised the option to create executables.

I have two LV projects in the works and a third will be coming latter.

1) I wrote a utility that analizes my hard drive's storage allocation. When you have a teen that knows how to down load files but refuse to clean up after himself, this is quite handy when it comes time to answer the question "where did all that disk space go?"
It goes through all of the folders on the drive and gives you a "Pie chart" showing where the space is used. You simply click on the biggest "pie piece" and you can quickly drill down to where the biggest problems are.

2) Fully computerized N-scale model trian layout. Last weekend we tested the control logic and hardware of a completely scratch built I/O syste
m that will eventually allow the operation of 4 seperate trains on the same track with auto routing and collesion avoidance. Two trains (cabs) will be available to humans and two for control by computer. All turn-outs (switches) signal lighting and animations are controlled by a LV program. It even has a graphical display of the track plan that allows the user to click on routes and select from a number of routing and direction options.

3) The third project will involve the automating of my milling machine once I have completed the hardware drives and sensing work. Milling machines a cool, but they can take a while to run.

Ben

[Marauder]

Hi, Ben.

What type of mill do you have? I have a Chinese mini lathe that I may try
that out on some day. I have a lot of different hobbies so it is interesting
to see what others are doing. The train layout sounds like fun, too!