Quanser DC Motor Control Trainer Missing Some VI's

Question

Hi, my name is Ansel. I am working on a project to set up an NI ELVIS with the Quanser DC Motor Control Trainer board and create a few very simple experiments demonstrating basic mechatronic functions.
I've been unable to utilize the VI's that came with the Quanser DC Motor Control Trainer board. The disc that was included must have been faulty because not a single file (not even simple html files) would open. I contacted Quanser about this and was directed to a website (http://www.meqtronics.com/public/requests/QCI_TEMP/QNETCDv1.20forLabVIEW8_5/) from which I was able to download the content of the disc. The files I downloaded seem not to be broken, however when I attempt to run one of the VI's, such as "04-QNET_DCMCT_Speed_Control," all but four of the sub-VI's necessary are found. The four missing VI's are "Intergrator.VI," "Integrator (DBL).VI," "Transfer Function.VI," "and "Transfer Function (DBL).VI." I have all the necessary components installed, as far as I know, and a search of my computer's hard drive returns no results for any of these VI's. I am running the full version of LabVIEW 8.5.
I would appreciate advice from anyone concerning this issue, but I'd also like to know if the Quanser Trainer VI's are the best way to learn how to create my own very simple VI's. All of the documentation I have found on the internet has referenced the trainer VI's that were supplied, so without them I haven't made much progress. I am only interested in a very simple open-loop system for controlling motor velocity as well as a slightly more complex closed-loop system. Is it worthwhile to get the Quanser Trainer VI's working or could I build these experiments from scratch?
Thank you for your time.
Ansel
Message Edited by Ansel on 04-29-2008 04:50 PM

Answer 1

Ansel,
Just to clarify, the version of the NI-ELVIS software that you may have is not the reason for the missing VIs in the Quanser program you downloaded.  The VIs in question are included as part of the LabVIEW PID Toolkit, which I'm assuming is not installed on your machine. However, these particular VIs (Integrator, Transfer Function, etc) are fairly out of date, and they are only included in the PID Toolkit to support legacy code.  I'm not sure if you have access to the PID Toolkit (it is also included as part of the LabVIEW Real-Time Module), but I would not suggest purchasing it just to get this Quanser code working.
If you are going to be focusing on simple open-loop control of the Quanser DC Motor, you could start by looking at some of the basic DAQmx examples.  Driving the motor at a certain velocity would just require supplying a constant voltage through a DAQ output.  If you want to do more advanced closed-loop control, the LabVIEW Control Design & Simulation Module might be worth taking a look at.  Take a look at the 3-hour Control Design & Simulation course here.  It is written specifically with the Quanser DC Motor board in mind.
Chris M.