Summary of LabVIEW Resources and Comments

[brianafischer]

A little feedback regarding some confusion I have seen with the LabVIEW software:

Download Locations
This seems to change frequently. I just downloaded and compiled all of the NI files, which required me to navigate through many threads and sites. Maybe you could create a "sticky" that has every link in a single thread. This would also help students understand ALL of the software that is available:

LabVIEW CMU Cam App 1/21/2007
LabVIEW Dashboard 01/28/2006
LabVIEW Motor Tester App 12/21/2005
LabVIEW Motor Sim App 12/21/2005

FRC Modeling Toolkit
FRC Toolkit 12/28/2006

Tutorial #1 - Using the USB-6009 for sensor modeling and input/output
Download
Online

Tutorial #2 - Using the FRC Robot Modeling/Simulation Kit:
Download
Online

Tutorial #3 - Advanced Kit Implementation (not 100% complete)
Online

README.TXT File in FRC Package
There is no documentation included with the "Updated FRC Toolkit" package. If a student downloads the software to distribute to his teammates, the webpage documentation is often not included. Kevin Watson has been providing a readme.txt in all of the packages as a standard.

Installing the FRC Robot Modeling/Simulation Toolkit:

1. Install LabVIEW 8.20 AND the supplied Driver CD as directed. NI Pilot Program teams should have received LabVIEW 8.20 and the Driver CDs with their USB-6009 shipment. All other teams will receive LabVIEW 8.20 in their FRC Kit of Parts. Sorry, this toolkit is not compatible with LabVIEW 8.0 that teams received last year - cheer up, however, teams can download and install an evaluation copy of LabVIEW 8.20 from here; once your copy arrives in your Kit of Parts, you can use its activation code to activate your copy - no need to uninstall and reinstall!
2. If LabVIEW is already installed, please close down LabVIEW if it has already been started.
3. Extract the contents of the FRC Toolkit ZIP file into the LabVIEW 8.2 directory - this should overwrite the contents of the user.lib directory already created in that folder. If you installed LabVIEW in the default location, that directory is "C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 8.2\".

Using the FRC Robot Modeling/Simulation Toolkit:

1. Install LabVIEW 8.20.
2. If not installing the Driver CDs, download and install NI-VISA 4.0 for Windows.
3. Download and complete the FREE online "Learn LabVIEW in 3 Hours" course.
4. Watch Tutorials 1 and 2.
5. Download and Install the FRC Toolkit Software.
6. Model your robot!

It's that simple. Please review the tutorials (sorry, they're about 30-40 minutes apiece) and NI Pilot Program teams with the USB-6009 DAQ devices are encouraged to use the devices for sensor modeling and for use in the toolkit as sensor feedback. We will make periodic updates to add functionality, release examples, release tutorials, and so forth, so please watch this thread for updates. Any questions should be posted in the LabVIEW subforum.

Hope this helps... Thanks for all the hard work Danny and crew at NI.

-A fellow "wire worker"