boolean timed switching

[joedirt]

Hi, 

I am using DAQ assistant to turn on digital outputs of the DAQ USB 6008 device. I want to be able to turn them on for about 1 second, with 1 second in between, for each output. So I want switch 1 to turn on, then turn off. then switch 2 to turn on, then off...ect..

The inputs I have for the switch are True/False values going into an array that control each switch. But I do not know how to get these True/False values to turn on/off when I want. Anyone have any info on this?

[johnsold]

The brute force way would be to put the DAQ Assistant inside a for loop with a 1 second Wait. Autoindex through the values of the boolean array.

The disadvantages of that approach are: No flexibility to make changes in timing. The DAQ Assistant configures and closes the DAQ task on each call. You cannot easily stop the program before it has gone through the entire array.

Better approach: Use  a state machine architecture. States could include Configure Switch Array, Configure Digital Output Task, Configure Timing Array, Idle, Write, Wait, Shutdown, and perhaps others for required features you have not mentioned.  The timing array would allow each switch to have a different time as opposed to the brute force method where all timing is fixed.

Lynn

[BFeigum · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Check out the VI I attached. It uses the left shift with carry VI and the Elapsed Time VI.

[joedirt]

That worked well thank you very much!!

[apok]

how do you stop the vi?  

[BFeigum]

You could just right click on the FALSE constant and choose "change to control"... but this was just to give the poster an idea of how to do what he wanted to do. I wasn't aiming to make a fully commented LabVIEW example ready for release.

[billko]

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@BFeigum wrote:

You could just right click on the FALSE constant and choose "change to control"... but this was just to give the poster an idea of how to do what he wanted to do. I wasn't aiming to make a fully commented LabVIEW example ready for release.

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It would've been just as easy - and a lot less muddy - if you created a stop button instead of a false constant.