© Copyright by Razin Rozilan 2012_All Right Reserved

HOW TO MAKE ARDUINO INTERFACE WITH LABVIEW

What is Arduino?

Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world

than your desktop computer. It's an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple

microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board. Arduino

projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer

(e.g. LabVIEW, Flash, Processing, MaxMSP.)

What is LabVIEW?

LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench)is system design

software that provides with the tools needed to create and deploy measurement and control

systems through unprecedented hardware integration. LabVIEW inspires you to solve problems,

accelerates your productivity, and gives you the confidence to continually innovate. Also the

software is used for a wide variety of applications and industries

© Copyright by Razin Rozilan 2012_All Right Reserved

Step To Interface Arduino + LabVIEW!

1. Purchase an Arduino board. You can find them at Myduino.com (For Malaysia) , Sparkfun (Over

Sea) or other suppliers. Make sure to order a USB cable if you don’t already have one. There are

two main boards. The Uno and the Mega. I purchased mine on Amazon.com.

2. Make sure you have LabVIEW 2010 or newer installed. The VIs that are included in the LIFA are

saved in LV 2010, so this is the version of LV that you must have to be able to use the LIFA. If you

do not have this version of LabVIEW, you can download a 30 day evaluation of it

from ni.com/trylabview

3. Install NI-VISA Drivers. To LabVIEW, the arduino appears as a serial instrument device. To

communicate with serial instruments in LabVIEW, you need to have the latest version of the NI-

VISA driver. You can get the latest NI-VISA drivers here. Make sure to select the

latest Windows or Mac versions.

4. Install the Arduino IDE and drivers for Windows. You can download them from the Arduino

website here.

Step-by-step instructions for setting up the Arduino software on Windows can be

found here.

For Mac look here. Mac does not need drivers but you still need the IDE environment.

5. Install the LIFA. The LIFA is available as a VI package through the LabVIEW Tools Network. You

must first install VIPM. Once VIPM is installed, click on this link to get and install the LIFA under

LabVIEW 2010+.

6. Upload the sketch ‘LIFA_Base.pde’ to the Arduino. The LIFA comes with a sketch program that

must be uploaded to the Arduino before you can use the VIs to communicate with it. You must

use the Arduino IDE software (which you installed in step 4) to do this. I show how to do this in

the video tutorial – above. The sketch is located at:

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2010\vi.lib\LabVIEW Interface for

Arduino\Firmware\LVIFA_Base\LVIFA_Base.pde

7. Start Playing. For support, join the Arduino LabVIEW community at ni.com/arduino

Example Figure :

© Copyright by Razin Rozilan 2012_All Right Reserved

Example Coding and Program :

Arduino + LabVIEW with LED Selector - http://www.mediafire.com/?14j158dywd886z3

Video Tutorial :

1. Arduino + LabVIEW - LCD Write

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObxiGK8wWaA&feature=g-upl

2. Arduino + labVIEW -LED Selection

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz4LCIJyd2A

3. Arduino + labVIEW -Solar Monitoring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i81jWQpoa3M&feature=channel&list=UL

4. Arduino + LabVIEW -Humidity & Light Monitoring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj5n2x9iygY

5. Arduino + LabVIEW –Way Communication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYG3YulsYUQ&feature=related

Other -

For more understanding, try to learn on how to use the basic component that is inside the

labview enviroment so that make more easyer to combine with arduino component to program the

style G-programming. So we can learn how the arduino hardware is wired and how the LabVIEW

Interface for Arduino (LIFA) works. The Labview interface for Arduino is a vi based API that was

written and distributed by national instruments. The code also includes and Arduino embedded

program which must be downloaded to the device. The program which runs on the Arduino,

responds to commands sent on the USB bus from the LabVIEW program. It then sends back data to

the the computer via the USB. The LabVIEW VIs provided, allow you to read back the analog inputs,

control the digital IO lines and use several other features of the Arduino hardware.

© Copyright by Razin Rozilan 2012_All Right Reserved

Software –

* Arduino IDE http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software

*LabVIEW http://www.ni.com/trylabview/

*VIPM http://jki.net/vipm/download

*VISA http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2914/lang/en

*NI License Activator http://www.mediafire.com/?zzbqi7bh17hb44a

*LIFA C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2011\vi.lib\LabVIEW Interface for

Arduino\Firmware\LIFA_Base

Hardware –

Arduino board with some sensor that is same or other than the library provided.

Reference

1. http://www.facebook.com/inraz

2. http://www.facebook.com/mohd.afiq.186?fref=ts

3. http://www.facebook.com/idzuddin.ariff?fref=ts

4. http://www.facebook.com/Style.IR.Ahmad?fref=ts

5. https://decibel.ni.com/content/groups/labview-interface-for-arduino

6. http://vishots.com/getting-started-with-the-labview-interface-for-arduino/