Library for Integration in LabVIEW and Firmware for Data Acquisition Card Control
Keywords:
firmware, LabVIEW, library, microcontroller, virtual instrumentation.Abstract
Data acquisition cards are digital electronic systems that, when controlled by a computer or digital system, capture or measure digital and analog signals from the physical environment. The objective of this project was to design and implement a virtual instrumentation library, compatible with LabVIEW, and firmware to control a data acquisition card based on the PIC18F4550 microcontroller and manage its resources, such as its digital and analog ports and its asynchronous serial communication port, without requiring the microcontroller to be reprogrammed each time it is used for different tasks. Firmware was designed and implemented to allow commands to be entered via the USB port of a DAQPIC18F4550 card based on the PIC18F4550 microcontroller, enabling control of its digital and analog ports and its asynchronous serial port. A LabVIEW library was designed and implemented as a user library, containing function blocks to control the five digital input/output ports of the DAQPIC18F4550 board, a function block for data acquisition via its analog ports, and a function block for asynchronous serial communication. The developed library and firmware enable the DAQPIC18F4550 board to perform basic low-speed data acquisition functions, with up to five digital ports and 30 input/output pins, up to 13 analog input channels, and a bidirectional asynchronous serial communication port that allows remote control and data acquisition by connecting a Bluetooth or radio-frequency communication module. The DAQPIC18F4550 has more digital and analog pins than development boards like the Arduino UNO and can operate wirelessly, which is an advantage compared to data acquisition boards like the NI USB-6008. Virtual test instruments were created in LabVIEW to verify the functionality of the library and firmware using the DAQPIC18F4550 board. Virtual instruments were run that combined control, data acquisition, and remote communication tasks using low sampling rates, on the order of 400 samples/s.
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