Phase measurements

[resistorman44]

Hello and thanks for a chance to get some feedback.

What I'm trying to do is quite simple in concept and hope I am going about it correctly.
I have an Agilent 34410A DMM and need to measure the resistance of an AC servo motor between phases (3 values), and then have it automatically take voltage of same phases after another motor is spinning it.

I would like to not only have data saved in a file but also have voltage displayed after each phase.

Any suggestions would be grand and thanks all very much

 

[IRstuff]

What exactly is your question? Your DMM has capability of doing a measurement, but you need some sort of switching hardware and/or additional hardware channels to actually do comparisons, coupled with something like Labview to collect the data.

TTFN
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[resistorman44]

Thanks for reply. I actually have a box I made that enables me to manually switch between phases.

I guess my question is what would be best code structure to use. I would love it to prompt user to switch to a specific phase and then another popup with value and graph. Hope I'm explaining myself here. Thanks

 

[IRstuff]

Nope, still unclear. You can write whatever code you want or need. What do you mean by "code structure?"

TTFN
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[resistorman44]

By code structure I mean what do you think is most efficient way to make a measurement, throw up a result/prompt, and continue on until all three phases are complete for both resistance and voltage.

 

[IRstuff]

Efficient in what sense? Again, I refer you to Labview, which essentially eliminates most coding altogether, although, in my experience, the program itself is dog slow, so there's efficiency loss there.

TTFN
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[resistorman44]

Ok I'm confused. Anyone else follow?

 

[resistorman44]

IRstuff, I applaud your experience and your quick responses. However they are not helpful. I've seen your replies in many other forums and very similar. I don't get what you mean when YOU SAY YOU REFER LABVIEW TO ME BUT THEN DOG IT BY CALLING OUT ITS DOWNFALLS!

SO what then?

 

[xnuke]

What IRStuff said makes sense. He's trying to find out what software package you plan to use to control your DMM and to collect the data from your DMM. LabVIEW is commonly used for data acquisition for this type of application. Do you plan to use Agilent's Digital Multimeter (DMM) Connectivity Utility? Without knowing your software package, it's hard to answer your questions.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
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[IRstuff]

Labview is probably the most commonly used measurement utility, and probably close to being the only one. But why should it be wart free? If I don't point out its shortcomings, am I not doing you a disservice? Do you want your doctor to prescribe a medicine but fail to mention that it could cause you impotency?

I'm guessing you must be a newly minted engineer; the reality of the world is that there is no such thing as the "most efficient" or "best" ANYTHING, because not everyone needs or wants the exact same thing. Engineering is about finding a compromise amongst a bunch of competing and mutually opposed requirements. There are tradeoffs made for EVERY product in the world. Labview will do the job exceedingly well, and if you are not horrifically concerned by speediness of loading, etc., then what's the problem?

As I pointed out, you did not define what you meant by "efficient." For whom? For which requirement that you have not stated? As a good engineer, you should be able to point out the shortcomings of any product you come across and relay them as required to ensure that your recipient is not misled.

You may live for creating software drivers and user interfaces, in which case Labview is certainly not "efficient" for your needs, but unless you clearly articulate your needs and wants, what you really expect for an answer?

TTFN
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[analogkid2digitalman]

IRstuff:

May I point out that LabVIEW, in my expereinces, is not dog slow. It can do some things faster than, say C, while other tasks it does run slower.
The Pro version I use has an Instrument Driver Project creator built into it (I have not used it). LabVIEW is quite efficient at building user interfaces.

I agree with you, it does have its warts, as do all IDE's.

-AK2DM

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