08-18-2017 10:01 AM
I have been working on implementing a lock in amplifier in lab view, and in the process I have stumbled upon numerous mentions of a NI Lock In Amplifier start up kit. It since has been taken off the website as it was not an official NI toolkit. I found a link posted in a thread discussing the start up kit that connected to some of its code. I was just wondering if the package was taken down as a result of performance issues- I've looked through it and it seems completely functional, and so I plan to use it (unless told it has problems). Thanks in advance for any and all responses!
Solved! Go to Solution.
08-18-2017 10:18 AM
This appears to be some very old software that works with Traditional DAQ (as opposed to DAQmx). My advice would be to stay very far away from Traditional DAQ unless it is needed as a critical Job Requirement ("We have to keep this 15-year-old VI, written with LabVIEW 5, running or the Company will fold!"). Note that a reasonable response to such a requirement would be to become subversive and simply "Start Over", re-developing the Project from first principles using "modern LabVIEW", modern ideas (State Machines, DAQmx, perhaps OOP) and modern data structures.
If you can find the code, l would recommend you study it, see if you can understand how it works, then starting completely from scratch, design a new Lock In Amplifier Demo using DAQmx (do not use the Dreaded DAQ Assistant, or its evil twin, the Dynamic Data Wire!). Once you've done that, if it seems truly useful, contact NI and offer it to them (or come here and offer it to the LabVIEW Community).
Bob Schor
08-18-2017 11:35 AM - edited 08-18-2017 11:36 AM
Found this archived post regarding a DAQmx version, there is a link to the library in the 2nd post.
The vi's open up, but all front panels are marked 'CENSORED' and are PW protected, there is Help available on them and they have terminals. YMMV.
http://natinst.public.daq.dsa.general.narkive.com/xXrKTBvF/lock-in-amplifier-and-daqmx
-AK2DM
08-18-2017 11:43 AM
What AK2DM is describing sounds exactly like the toolkit I was using at a previous company. If you ask NI, they may be able to get you an uncensored version. The code was very messy, with "todos" left all over the place, zillions of shift registers, and nearly impossible to debug. Someone else had gotten it working for our application before I joined, so I didn't have to worry about much, just keep using it. To its credit, the code did what we wanted pretty reliably!
08-18-2017 12:10 PM
Thank you all for your responses!