Paul K. Dixon and Timothy D. UsherDepartment of Physics

California State University San Bernardino

The Development ofNI-ELVIS

I. Past:Applied Physics Instruction at CSUSB and our “Integrated” Student Station

II. Present:The Development and Maturation of NI-ELVIS

Outline Introduction

1994: an NSF ILI grant to equip the electronics laboratory using LabVIEW and fully-interfaced equipment

1995: Physics 150 – Introductory Analog Electronics at the freshman level (before calculus, before intro physics)Ohms Law to Lock-in Amplifiers in 10 weeks

1996: Physics 350 – Computer-based Data Acquisition and Control at the junior level LabVIEW, GPIB, DAQ, Experiment Interfacing, Control Theory, ITR Filtering, PID, State Machines

1997: Physics 352 – Advanced Electronics at the senior levelLinear Response Theory, Integral Transforms, Analog and Digital Communication Theory, Noise Analysis, ORCAD PSPICE

Applied Physics Instruction at CSUSB - An Overview

I. Past

Instructor station/server with LCD projector Windows 2000 peer-to-peer network, no outside line

12 Student Stations

The Student Station Hardware I. Past

• 850 MHz Pent III• 17” Display• LabVIEW• PCI DAQ

ProtectionModule

• PCI GPIB• HP Scope• HP FG• HP DMM

• Elenco Trainer

Simple launcher for tutorials and instruments

LabVIEW 3.1 - 1994

The Integrated Software Environment for FreshmanElectronics

I. Past

GPIB DMM Function Generator Scope

DAQ Scope Arbitrary FG Voltmeter Counter Pulse Generator Digital I/O

Amalgam Bode –

GPIB FG & GPIB Scope Two-point IV Curve –

GPIB DMM & DAQ Arbitrary FG

Virtual and Amalgam Instruments for Freshman Electronics

I. Past

The power boosting circuit

Junior LV Project – A PID Controller I. Past

The“Bug”

A standard project in the 7th week

GPIB Instrument Driver, DAQ Analog IO, Feedback Control Theory

Control References, VI Server, etc.

Final Project - 2001 Circular Buffered Analog In,

Digital IO, State Machines

Junior LV Project - A Seismograph I. Past

Seismometer - a weighted speaker

Impulsive Tester -a sprinkler solenoid

Junior LV Project - Phototrope I. Past

Final Project - 2000 Buffered Analog In, Inline IIR Digital

Filtering, Digital IO, State Machines

Angled binocular photoresistive eyes, photogate “OWL neck” sensor, and a bi-directional two-speed baby-swing motor drive system

Fixed Breadboard Wear and Tear Dedicated circuits – makes concurrent sections impossible Wiring must be done in lab Instructor continually building demo circuits!

Standard DAQ Limited power in analog out

GPIB Instruments Difficult to integrate with DAQ, chunky communication

The Solution Integrate the DAQ interface and the trainer into a single unit with a

removable breadboard and protection module Add the functionality of the GPIB Instruments into the integrated

trainer

The Limitations of our Past Approach

I. Past

1994 : Designed and built the initial protection modules for our precious AT-MIO-16 cards

1998 : Designed and tested the Integrated Electronics Design Station (IEDS) communication module at a student station

1999-2000 : Designed and built IEDS and showed it to NI

Summer 2001: Designed and built the Universal Laboratory Instructional Station (ULIS) feasibility prototype in collaboration with NI (Steven Romero, Anne Goshorn, Jeff Hall)

Fall 2001 to the Present : Happily watched NI design and build the Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite (ELVIS)

The Development and Maturation of NI - ELVIS - An Overview

II. Present

1998 - 2000 Fully Functional Major Power –

30 Watts! All of the capability

through a 68 pin E-series card and about 70 chips

IEDS: The Integrated ElectronicsDesign Station - The Functional Prototype

II. Present

ULIS: The Universal LaboratoryInterfacing System - The Feasibility Prototype

II. Present

ULIS Function Generator

ULIS Impedance Meter

Summer 2001 – a blur! The NI Design Team:

Steven Romero,Anne Goshorn,Jeff Hall

Fall 2001 – present

Any 68-pin E-series DAQ card

DMM and Scope on both breadboard and front panel

External power block ~ 18 Watts to breadboard

Finally, a main power switch!

NI - ELVIS: The Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite

II. Present

The Breadboard 392 undedicated tie points Removable – 3 ring binder BNC, Banana, 9-pin Dsub Power LEDS Logic LEDS

NI - ELVIS: Hardware Features II. Present

The Protection Module High current lines fused Low current lines –

sacrificial inline resistors Power and DAQ interlock Replaceable in under

a minute

NI - ELVIS: The Current Instrument Software

II. Present

Green – NI reworked and polished Blue – My “hacked” examples in the process

of being reworked by NI BlackBlack – capabilities built into the hardware,

on the “to-do” list

Addressable Digital I/O – allows for 16 bytes of write and 16 bytes of read to plug-in board @ approximately 250 Hz

ELVIS can read the plug-in board ID (0-255) allowing for a variety of dedicated boards with linked software

NI - ELVIS: Capabilities and Future Instrument Software

II. Present