INTRO TO LABVIEW AND DATA ACQUISITION WITH A NI-USB-TC01 THERMOCOUPLE
Sean McDaniel
October 15, 2023
MENG 3511 Introduction to Mechatronics
ABSTRACT
The combination of these two labs is to introduce the use of
LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering
Workbench) to students as well as show how to perform data
acquisition with a NI-USB-TC01 Thermocouple. LabVIEW can
be used to imitate physical instruments that students will use such
as oscilloscopes and multimeters. Learning LabVIEW is a
necessity because it allows students to have better convenience
and organization when performing complex tasks.
To achieve this objective, Students are given simple tasks that
require the basic operations needed to run a VI program on
LabVIEW. This consists of showing the students how to change
and program graphs that can simulate circuits in the real world
and compare multiple waves at the same time. Some of the graphs
used are saw tooth, sine, cosine, and square graphs. The properties
are changed throughout the process to show students how to
manipulate the properties of tools added onto LabVIEW.
Afterwards, students are taught how to use thermocouples to
find temperatures and voltages of objects in the actual world. In
this lab. Students measure the voltages and temperatures of their
own hand, an ice pack, and the ambient temperature of the room.
The results of the measurements found using thermocouple VI are
as follows: An average of 83.3 for the palm of the student’s hand,
33.4 for the ice pack given during the experiment, and 68.2 for the
ambient temperature of the room. The time constant for the
thermocouple was calculated to be 4.9s by taking 63.2% of the
time it took the measurements to reach a steady-state temperature.
NOMENCLATURE
°F Fahrenheit (Degrees)
℃Celsius (Degrees)
V Volts (Volts)
T Temperature (℃)
t Time (seconds)
INTRODUCTION
In the first part of this laboratory, Students are
introduced to the basic programming skills of LabVIEW. In
the second part of this laboratory, Students are introduced to
the idea of temperature measurement with thermocouples
and data acquisition using the LabVIEW DAQ Assistant.
LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering
Workbench) is a virtual instrument that can be used to
imitate physical instruments such as oscilloscopes and
multimeters. LabVIEW has a large set of tools for acquiring,
analyzing, displaying, and storing data, as well as tools to
help troubleshoot the codes that are written. A user can build
a user interface (Front Panel) with controls and indicators.
Some examples of input mechanisms in LabVIEW are
knobs, push buttons, and dials. Some examples of output
indicators are graphs and LEDs.
LabVIEW can also be used in pair with a NI-USB-TC01
thermocouple data acquisition board to investigate
temperature measurements, gain data acquisition and log
data into LabVIEW. The NI-USB-TC01 is a device that
consists of a J- type thermocouple, amplifier, single channel
analog data acquisition and USB interface.
A thermocouple is a temperature measurement device
made of a junction of dissimilar metals. The different
thermal characteristics of the two types of materials at a
thermocouple junction result in a small voltage visible on the
thermocouple leads that is related to the temperature of the
junction. An amplifier is then used because the voltage that
is visible is small and needs to be accurately inputted into an
analog to digital converter. Thermocouples can be made
from many different metals and the choice of the conductors
determines the operating temperature range and other details
of the measuring device. In this experiment, a J-Type
thermocouple is used along with the NI-USB-TC01. The J-
Type thermocouple is made of iron and constantan and has a
temperature range of 0℃ to 750℃.
Most of the second part of the laboratory experiment is
creating the LabVIEW VI that measures the output of
the
