Design Of The Experimental Platform For Electronics Based On Virtual Instrument

Based on the analysis of the problems in traditional experimental approach, an idea, which applies virtual instrument (VI) technology to experimental teaching, is proposed in this paper. Design methods of virtual instrument are studied on the development platform LabVIEW. A basic electronical virtual experiment platform is designed. Firstly, according to the actual needs of teaching, the hardware part is designed including a multi-output DC regulated power supply, monolithic integrated function generator ICL8038-based sources, and experimental component libraries that meet lots of courses. Secondly, the architecture of virtual instrument is analyzed, common VI needed by basic electronical experiments are designed, the issue of data acquisition is discussed and the data acquisition hardware NI USB-6009 for the experiment platform is determined. Thirdly, after a brief introduction to the operational principle of the actual voltage meter, function generator and oscilloscope, the above three methods of virtual instrument software are emphatically analyzed. With the functions provided by LabVIEW module, a virtual voltage meter, virtual signal generator, and dual-channel oscilloscope are designed. A performance test is made to compare these virtual instruments and their actual counterparts. Finally, an electronic experiment-the most typical pilot project testing a single-stage amplifier is demonstrated for the application of this platform. The results show that the platform can meet the needs of experimental teaching. At the end, the paper is summarized and the idea of further improving the designed platform is presented.