M.E.

401 Mechatronics

Laboratory Two
Waveform Generation and Sub-VIs.
Required Materials
Hardware

Software

Lab P.C.

Labview

USB DAQ board (bonus)

Measurement and Automation eXplorer (bonus)

Study Material
Course Text
LabVIEW Manual

Purpose
To generate and combine a sinusoidal analog signal with white and random noise.
The topic of sub-VIs will be addressed.

Introduction
LabVIEW includes a large variety of VIs that allow for the generation and analysis of
many different waveforms. Today you will gain experience in LabVIEW with sine
waveforms, observing their behavior, and corrupting them with white and random
additive noise. In real system
Part 1: Create VI
Purpose: Generate a sine wave and output this waveform to a waveform graph.
Procedure:
1. Create a new VI
2. Add a Sine Wave Generator

a.

From the Signal processing sub-palette of the functions menu select

waveform generation and the Sine waveform vi. Add the Sine
waveform vi to the block diagram.

b.

Now right click on the frequency terminal of sine waveform and go

to create and select control. Notice the changes in front panel.

c.

Follow the same procedure for amplitude and sampling info

terminals on sine waveform.

d.

Now go to front panel and bring up the control menu by right clicking.
Go to modern sub-palette and select the waveform graph from
graphs sub-palette. Place the waveform graph by left click on the
front panel.

e.

Notice the waveform graph vi in the block diagram.

f.

Wire the signal output terminal of the Sine waveform vi to waveform

graph.vi

Your circuit should look something like this so far

Now we need to create a sub .vi
Part 2: Create a SubVI
Purpose: Create a sub-vi that will add two types of noise to the sine waveform in
Part 1.
Procedure:

1. Create a new vi By clicking Uile and new vi. Save it as mysubvi.vi.

2. Right Click in the block diagram to bring up the Functions Panel, and select
Case structure from the Structures subpalette. Click and drag cursor in the
block diagram to place and size the structure.
3. Right click to bring up the control menu in front panel. Go to modern
subpalette and select the Radio button under Boolean subpalette.

4. Rewrite the Radio Button as shown in Uigure

5. Now move to Block diagram and Wire the Radio button to the Case Structure
case selector
located on the case structure frame. Notice the changes in
the frame names of case structure.
6. Select the Signal-processing subpalette of the Function menu, select
waveform generation and select the Uniform white noise waveform.vi and
place it inside the Uniform white, Default frame of the case structure.

7. Now right click on the amplitude terminal of Uniform white noise
waveform.vi and go to create and select control. Notice the changes in front
panel. Follow the same procedure for sampling info terminal. Note:
Amplitude and Sampling Info should be outside of the case structure in
order that the same controls be used for both cases.
8. Go to front panel and bring up the control menu by right click. Go to modern
subpalette and select the waveform chart from graphs subpalette. Place the
waveform chart by left click on the front panel.
9. Return to the block diagram and move the waveform chart block outside of
the case structure. Wire the waveform chart in the block diagram with the
signal out terminal of the Uniform white noise waveform.vi
10. Following the same procedure, add Periodic Random Noise Waveform.vi in
frame periodic random of case structure. Wire the amplitude tunnel on the

edge of the case structure to the spectral amplitude terminal. Similarly, wire
the sampling info and waveform chart tunnels to the periodic random noise
block terminals.
Your Front Panel and Block Diagram should look like this for the sub-vi

ConTiguring the Sub .vi to accept inputs and outputs

1. Return to the front panel and locate the connector panel icon in the upper
right hand corner. The pane should be broken into empty blocks.

2. Click on a connector pane block and then the Boolean control (radio
buttons). Click on a second block and then your amplitude control. Click
on a third block and then your sampling information cluster. Click on the
last block and then on the waveform chart. Your sub-vi is now conUigured
to accept inputs and return outputs. Save this sub-vi if you havent
already.
(Dont get confused, note that we are dealing with sub-
vi) When you place the sub-vi into your main program block diagram, the
sub-vi block will have terminals corresponding to the radio buttons,
amplitude, sampling info and waveform chart.
Part 3: Connecting your Main VI to your SubVI
1. Open your VI form Part 1 and in the functions palette in the block diagram
Uind the select a vi subpalette. Choose the name of your sub-vi and place it in
the block diagram.
2. Now right click on the amplitude terminal of your sub-vi and go to create and
select control. Notice the changes in front panel. Follow the same procedure
for the radio buttons terminal. Connect sampling info to the previously
created sampling info controlling the sine wave generator.
3. Rename the new amplitude control into noise amplitude, it will control the
noise waveform.
4. Go to front panel and bring up the control menu by right click. Go to modern
subpalette and select the waveform graph from graphs subpalette. Place the
waveform graph by left clicking on the front panel. Rename to noise
waveform graph.
5. Wire the waveform chart terminal of sub.vi waveform to the in terminal of
the noise waveform graph.
Part 4: Outputting sound
1. Bring up the function menu in the block diagram by right clicking. Go to
programming subpalette and select the Graphics and sound subpalette,
select the Sound subpalette then the Output subpalette and select the
Sound output write.vi and place it in right side of the block diagram..

2. Again, bring up the function menu by right click. Go to programming

subpalette and select the Graphics and sound subpalette. Select the Sound
subpalette then the Output subpalette and then the Sound output
conTigure.vi and place it to the left of the Sound output write.vi. From the
same Output subpalette select Sound Output Wait and place this to the
right of Write.
3. Wire the task id terminal of Sound output write.vi to the task id terminal of
Sound output conTigure.vi. Wire the task id out terminal (on the right hand
side) of Write to the task id terminal of Wait.
4. Now go to front panel and bring up the control menu by right click. Go to
modern subpalette and select the waveform graph from graphs subpalette.
Place the waveform graph by left clicking on the front panel. Rename to noise
plus waveform graph.
5. Return to the block diagram. Bring up the function menu by right click. Go to
mathematics subpalette and select add from numeric subpalette. Place it in
the middle of the block diagram.
6. Wiring all the terminals:
i.

Wire the x terminal of Add to signal out of the sine waveform (also wired
to the waveform graph).

ii.

Wire the y terminal of Add to the output of the sub vi (also wired to
noise waveform graph).

iii. Wire the x+y terminal (the output on the right hand side) of Add to the
data terminal of Sound output write.vi and to the Noise Plus
waveform graph.
7. Double check your wiring. Your circuit should look something like this.

8. You should now be ready to run your program. Set the sampling info for the
sine wave and the noise to the following: Fs: 22050 and #s: 10000. Check the
PC sound settings to ensure that its not set to mute and adjust the volume to
maximum. Set the sine wave amplitude to 0.5 V and the frequency to 1 kHz
(1000 Hz). Start with the noise amplitude set to 0. Execute the vi and conUirm
you are hearing something and your graphs are all getting data. Hit stop and

then run to get another run of the program. Each run should output a sound
for less than a second.
Note: Scaling graphs and charts You will likely see something far more
distorted when you Uirst run your vi. You need to set the scale appropriately
so you can see what is happening. Default setting is for the X and Y scales to
be set for autoscaling, this can be very helpful or it can be a pain. Right click
on the graph and uncheck autoscale X under the x scale drop down menu.
Now you can set the scale and have it stay how you want it. There are a
number of ways to set the scale in these graphs. You can right click, then
select properties, the adjust the max and min on the scales tab. You can left
click directly on the numbers on the axis and change them. One of the easier
methods is to use the zoom tool. Right click on the graph and select visible
items, then check Graph Palette. This palette should appear somewhere
below or beside your graph:

When you click the middle button a sub-palette shows up, select the middle
of the top row:

Once selected your cursor should switch to a magnifying glass. Draw a square
around a region of the graph to zoom into that region. Continue to zoom until
you have a good image on your graph. If you zoom too far, the bottom left
selection will return the graph to full size.
9. With the noise amplitude set to 0 the waveform graph and the noise plus
waveform graph should be identical. Now try setting the noise amplitude to
0.2 V as shown in the screenshot.

Plot your front panel and block diagram. Make sure you can see three
distinct waveforms, with the third being an obvious combination of the
Tirst two. If you are not sure about the quality of your waveforms have
the TA conTirm they are okay.

10. Now we will experiment with different amplitudes and frequencies.

Set the noise amplitude to 0. Keeping the frequency at 1 kHz change the
amplitude to 0.1 V, 0.01 V, and 1 V, describe how the output (the sound
coming from the speaker) is affected by changing amplitude.

Set the amplitude back to 0.5 V and try different frequencies. For each of
the following frequencies describe the output, 200 Hz, 500 Hz, 1 kHz, 3
kHz, 10 kHz.
Now set the wave back to 0.5 V amplitude and 1 kHz frequency and try
introducing noise. Try 0.05 V amplitude (1/10 of your primary
amplitude), 0.5V (equal amplitude), and 5 V (10 times the amplitude of
the primary). Report on the effects with both uniform and random
noise.

Lab reports format should be the same as indicated in Lab 1 before. Please
refer to the Lab 1 instructions if you have any questions about grading or
BONUS (1 points): Using the speaker found in lab (there are only a couple, so
only use them when you think you are ready), play the Tirst two bars of Mary
Had a Little Lamb.
BONUS (1 point): Using the speaker found in lab (there are only a couple, so
only use them when you think you are ready), play at least three chords. Add
the ability to have a pure chord or have a chord corrupted by noise.