Advanced LabVIEW Labs

This book is a fantastic hands-on introduction to LabView, probably the best book on this topic a beginner can find. It is extremely clearly written, very well edited (i.e., there are practically no mistakes), and it has excellent illustrations for each step in the process of building VIs. The book was developed by the author as a student manual for the class he taught. However, it is written so well that I do not understand why a student who has such a book needs an instructor at all. It consists of 12 chapters, all very practical. The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the LabView interface and its editing tools and introduces very simple VIs illustrating the while loop and the waveform chart. Chapters 2 through 8 teach increasingly complicated VIs which utilize the waveforem graph, XY graph, For loop, Formula node, operations with data files and character strings, shift registers, and case and sequence structures. The reader learns how to create arrays of data, perform mathematical operations on them, save them in files and read from files, and how to plot them. There are many practical tips how to navigate the LabView interface quickly and efficiently. Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the advance analysis VIs (included only in the "full" but not in the "base" labview package) and demonstrate how to program nonlinear least squares fitting and Fast Fourier Transform. Finally, the last 3 chapters teach programming of data acquisition boards - analog to digital conversion (digitizing oscilloscope), digital to analog conversion (PID temperature control), and GPIB control of instruments. While the book covers only the essentials of labview, the topics covered and the examples presented are extremely useful, and they all a must to know to program in LabView.The book comes without a CD, but it is not necessary as the book describes the process of building of each VI so accurately and in so detailed way that it is very easy to follow the guidelines. The book came out in 1999 and most likely was written using LabView 4. Three more versions of LabView came out since that time. It turned out that using it with newer versions of LabView is quite straightforward. The small changes that were introduced after the version 4 sometimes make it necessary to change the VIs slightly, but it is easy to figure out what changes are required using the error messages and LabView help. For instance, newer versions of LabView require that the conditional terminal in the While loop be wired; Replace Array Element is now called Replace Array Subset; there is no need to construct Global Variables using a while loops' shift registers (although it is interesting to learn how this can be done), etc. I counted only 10 small changes which had to be done to the programs on the first 220 pages of the book - and no errors or typos whatsoever! To run the programs in Chapters 1-7 any LabView version will do; to run the programs in Ch. 8 and 9 one needs "Full" package (the "base" o

I needed a new software platform for data acquisition following the demise of an older platform. All of my friends at various national laboratories were using LabVIEW so it was a natural choice. I then started looking for a "directed tutorial" that would get me up to speed for data acquisition without first mastering the vast multitude of LabVIEW features (until I really needed them). I found Essick's book to be head and shoulders above the other novice-level books I tried (which were helpful but were taking too long). My undergraduate research students now first encounter LabVIEW with the guidance of this clear, concise, and well-written book. It would also be my first choice as a textbook for a class on LabVIEW (or on data acquisition techniques in general). I recommend this book very highly.

I bought the book last week and since then I can't stop reading it and going through the well presented Labs. I find the book very interesting, well written ,to the point and clear. It will get you up to speed with Labview quickly. I own other Labview books but this is the only one that I didn't find boring or confusing. This is definitely a book I would recommend to all the students who want to learn Labview in a short period of time and also to the instructors; it can be a great teaching tool ! Finally, the price is ...very affordable. Great book ! ...