Standalone Module

[mityeltu-2]

I am working on a rig for automated testing of fuses for the lab where I work. The basic idea is to monitor fuse temperature during a rated current test. The test requires taking temperatures every 5 minutes. We are currently doing this manually with a digital thermometer using thermocouples. I would like to automate this using labview; however, there is a caveat that must be met and I'm not sure this can be done.

I need the data to be stored on a thumb drive and without the use of a pc or laptop. In other words, I need a labvew module that works independently of a pc. I would program the device with the pc, but the end device will not have on connected. All data would be stored on the thumb drive (or sd card - whatever works better/easier) and then downloaded to a pc for analysis. I would alos need electrical isolation of the thermocouples from the controller unit, but that is just a matter of hardware and is a simple fix (I imagine).

There would be other bells and whistles for indication such as an LCD to monitor the temperature of each thermocouple and LEDs to indicate when thermal stability is reached, but those things are minor in comparison.

So the question is: can I have a module that acquires data from thermocouples and logs it to a thumbdrive but does not have any connection to a pc or do I have to have the pc to run the labview firmware in order to acquire the data?

[GerdW]

Hi mityeltu,

you can use cRIO or sbRIO devices…

(Storing data on a thumb drive without using a computer is quite senseless: there always is some kind of computer involved!)

Why don't you call your local NI sales department to discuss your requirements?

[arteitle]

If all you need to do is log temperatures, are you sure you need something that can run LabVIEW to do it? How about a standalone thermocouple logger like one of these:

https://www.omega.com/subsection/dataloggers.html

https://www.lascarelectronics.com/search-results/?q=thermocouple

[mityeltu-2]

I will look into those.

The only reason I was looking into labview for this is because I know labview programming, and that it will almost certainly allow for easy thermocouple interface with some kind of linearization. Plus, there are all those nifty modules that allow for hardware connections that are ready made. I am looking to make this as simple as possible for myself.

I have been banging my head against the wall of thermocouple linearization, amplification and conditioning for many many days now and I'm tired of it, so I am looking for an easier solution. I have been using a PIC18F2510 or 4620 to do all the heavy lifting, but that means I have to devlop the code and build the interfaces and make sure they are rated for the noisy environment and properly grounded and shielded. Too much! I give.

So here I am.

Thanks for the other possible solutions. I will look at those tomorrow and give a brief update.

[Kevin_Price]

Dunno if it'll work for you, but you may want to take a few minutes to look into surface mount RTD temperature sensors.  I found them to be less sensitive to environmental noise than thermocouples.

 You can then look for more fully featured type of "digital thermometer" that supports the right quantity of your sensor type and the ability to export data to a USB drive.  I have no specific knowledge in this field but suspect such things probably exist.

-Kevin P