DAQ driver opens door to signal acquisition applications

Easy addition of the APx515 to a LabVIEW environment is achieved via the DAQ driver’s collection of Virtual Instruments (VIs)—a function or program created in LabVIEW—for initialising the hardware and configuring a wide range of settings, including input and output channels, sample rates, trigger conditions, signal generation, and signal acquisition.

The driver is based on a low-level C++ measurement library, adheres to National Instrument’s standard guidelines for instrument drivers, and has a very small memory footprint. Additionally, it enables control of the APx515 completely independent of the APx500 control software.

The APx515 DAQ driver’s feature set includes support for the LabVIEW waveform data type, arbitrary waveform generation and waveform acquisition.

Additionally, the APx DAQ driver has audio test functionality that makes it unique, including sine generator with two independent channels; optional dither for digital signal generation; high- and low-pass input filters; input signal weighting filters; and a wide range of meters for audio metrics.

Provision of these features enables LabVIEW users to easily make industry standard audio measurements while eliminating the need to develop their own analysis routines.

In addition to audio test, the LabVIEW DAQ Driver for APx515 opens up a world of possibilities in non-audio signal acquisition. Users can easily integrate the high-quality, robust APx515 analyser front end into any LabVIEW application involving signal generation and analysis from DC to 90 kHz. Potential uses include vibration analysis, acoustic intensity, ultrasound, infrasound, analysis of dynamic signals (e.g., force, pressure, strain), power supply quality, and more.