beginner question on labview and transducer

[gambit10101@yahoo.com]

i'm trying to understand what a transducer does and what labview can do
to it.
are these assumption correct?
1) with labview, i can change the frequency of sound waves emitted from
a ultrasonic transducer. if i want maximum amplitude of the sound wave
(loudness), i would set the transducer to its internal resonant
frequency (1 mHz) with labview. if i set the transducer to any other
frequency with labview, i would not get max amplitude.

2) input power of the transducer is 100 W which is the max amount of
power i can supply to the transducer. the more power i supply the
higher the amplitude of the sound wave (with 100 W the maximum power the

transducer can handle) regardless of the resonant frequency. Resonan
t
frequncy and the amount of input combined both effect the amplitude of
the sound waves.

3) can labview change the resonant frequcy and amount of input power to
the transducer by itself by simply clicking a switch or turning a dial
on the labview front panel?

4) any good books to help me write a labview GUI for a ultrasonic
transducer to measure the distance traveled and the time taken of a
reflected sound wave in water?

5) what is beamwidth (3 degree) and depth rating (100 m) of a
transducer?
thanks

[Kevin_work]

gambit10101@yahoo.com wrote:

> i'm trying to understand what a transducer does and what labview can do
> to it.

A transducer by definition changes one form of energy into another.
Typically it turns some sort of input to a voltage (a microphone
changes sound waves to a voltage) or it changes a voltage
to some form of output (a speaker changes voltage to sound waves).
I am not familiar with the transducer you are using but I will try to work
using
some assumptions and my used brain.

>
> are these assumption correct?
> 1) with labview, i can change the frequency of sound waves emitted from
> a ultrasonic transducer. if i want maximum amplitude of the sound wave
> (loudness), i would set the transducer to its internal resonant
> frequency (1 mHz) with labview. if i set the transducer to any other
> frequency with labview, i would not get max amplitude.

Can not say since I have no idea how your transducer works.
But this sounds reasonable

>
>
> 2) input power of the transducer is 100 W which is the max amount of
> power i can supply to the transducer. the more power i supply the
> higher the amplitude of the sound wave (with 100 W the maximum power the
>
> transducer can handle) regardless of the resonant frequency. Resonant
> frequncy and the amount of input combined both effect the amplitude of
> the sound waves.

Again dont know but this sounds reasonable.

>
>
> 3) can labview change the resonant frequcy and amount of input power to
> the transducer by itself by simply clicking a switch or turning a dial
> on the labview front panel?

Not by itself since LabView is software, you will need some sort of hardware

to connect to the transducer and Labview to control that hardware

>
>
> 4) any good books to help me write a labview GUI for a ultrasonic
> transducer to measure the distance traveled and the time taken of a
> reflected sound wave in water?
>
> 5) what is beamwidth (3 degree) and depth rating (100 m) of a
> transducer?
> thanks

Consider a flashlight. Turn it on and point it at the wall. The size of the
spot it makes
is its beamwidth (or maybe half of that). It is measured in degrees because
it is defined
as the angle between the center and the edge.

I am not sure about the depth rating. Since you are talking about water this
may be
how far down you can put it.

It sounds to me that you will need a few pieces of hardware to accomplish
your task.
1) Some sort of Digital Acquisition board (DAQ) NI makes several.
2) Some sort of amplifier to get the 100W of power.
3) A PC and Labview to tie it all together.

I cant help you with the hardware (maybe some one else here can.) If you
need help
with the Labview portion, this is a good place to ask.

Hope this was in some small way helpful.

Kevin Kent