The Development of NI-ELVIS Paul K. Dixon and Timothy D. Usher Department of Physics California State University San Bernardino 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Outline I. Past: II. Present: Introduction I. Past: Applied Physics Instruction at CSUSB and our “Integrated” Student Station II. Present: The Development and Maturation of NI-ELVIS 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Applied Physics Instruction at CSUSB - An Overview I. Past 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 level Linear Response Theory, Integral Transforms, Analog and Digital Communication Theory, Noise Analysis, ORCAD PSPICE 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

The Student Station Hardware I. Past Instructor station/server with LCD projector Windows 2000 peer-to-peer network, no outside line 12 Student Stations 850 MHz Pent III 17” Display LabVIEW PCI DAQ Protection Module PCI GPIB HP Scope HP FG HP DMM Elenco Trainer 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

The Integrated Software Environment for Freshman Electronics I. Past Simple launcher for tutorials and instruments LabVIEW 3.1 - 1994 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Virtual and Amalgam Instruments for Freshman Electronics I. Past GPIB DMM Function Generator Scope DAQ Arbitrary FG Voltmeter Counter Pulse Generator Digital I/O Amalgam Bode – GPIB FG & GPIB Scope Two-point IV Curve – GPIB DMM & DAQ Arbitrary FG 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Junior LV Project – A PID Controller I. Past A standard project in the 7th week GPIB Instrument Driver, DAQ Analog IO, Feedback Control Theory The “Bug” The power boosting circuit Control References, VI Server, etc. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Junior LV Project - A Seismograph I. Past Final Project - 2001 Circular Buffered Analog In, Digital IO, State Machines Impulsive Tester - a sprinkler solenoid Seismometer - a weighted speaker 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

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 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

The Limitations of our Past Approach I. Past 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 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

The Development and Maturation of NI - ELVIS - An Overview II. Present 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) 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

IEDS: The Integrated Electronics Design Station - The Functional Prototype 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 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

ULIS: The Universal Laboratory Interfacing System - The Feasibility Prototype II. Present Summer 2001 – a blur! The NI Design Team: Steven Romero, Anne Goshorn, Jeff Hall ULIS Impedance Meter ULIS Function Generator 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

NI - ELVIS: The Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrument Suite II. Present 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! 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

NI - ELVIS: Hardware Features II. Present The Breadboard 392 undedicated tie points Removable – 3 ring binder BNC, Banana, 9-pin Dsub Power LEDS Logic LEDS The Protection Module High current lines fused Low current lines – sacrificial inline resistors Power and DAQ interlock Replaceable in under a minute 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

NI - ELVIS: The Current Instrument Software II. Present 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

NI - ELVIS: Capabilities and Future Instrument Software II. Present Green – NI reworked and polished Blue – My “hacked” examples in the process of being reworked by NI Black – 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 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4