Report generation write to file at interval

Question

Hi,
I am using the report generation toolkit to write data to an excel sheet. I am recieving a lot of data but only want to save the data to the excel sheet every minute. I have found threads about doing this with the Write to Measurement Express VI but I am not using that and am unsure how to translate that code to something I could use. Any ideas? I have tried using a case selector around all of the report generation VIs but that doesn't seem to work...
Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

Nice, can you help  kmarcella work that into his code?
Well, the example that I post shows the Big Picture for doing what KMarcella wants to do, namely collect data periodically (like once a minute) and write all of the data, presumably one Excel row at a time, to an Excel Workbook.
The Original Poster has the best understanding of the details of the task, but here are some suggestions that should help him (or her!).
Divide the task into phases.
Initialization Phase -- set up DAQmx channels, define timing parameters, open Excel Workbook.
Loop (repetitive) Phase -- take a single reading, write a single row (or rows) into Excel, and wait for the next point.
Finalization Phase -- close DAQmx, save the Excel Workbook and Dispose Report.
Note that these phases are illustrated in the example -- there's stuff before the loop, the loop, and stuff after the loop.
Strive for compactness and simplicity.  Try to fit it on a single screen (1280 by 1024) -- use sub-VIs where necessary to "encapsulate" (or "hide") the Messy Details.
Try to not use Express VIs.  For example, a simple Wait to Next ms Multiple is much simpler, more compact, and intuitive than Elapsed Time.  You are to be commended for using DAQmx calls directly.
I am completely befuddled by your use of the Dynamic Data Type.  It looks very complicated, lots of extra wires, bloating the Block Diagram.  It might be necessary (only you know the requirements of the task), but I suspect there is a simpler solution that works with the arrays of data directly.
However, that raises another question as to the nature of the data being collecting and the data being saved.  I notice that you are sampling M channels, N samples (I don't know what M and N are),  Am I correct that you are sampling way more points than you are writing to Excel?  If you are only doing one write a minute, are you sampling faster than 1/minute?  What are you doing with the other points?
The reason for the previous question is that my model of your task might be wrong!  I'm assuming (and my code does this) that you sample periodically (one sample at a time) and write each sample to Excel.  On the other hand, if you are sampling frequently and writing infrequently (say, sampling at 100Hz, maybe displaying the data, and writing a "representative point" every minute), then my model, with the writing in the same loop as the sampling, should probably be replaced with a Producer/Consumer pattern, where you "export" a point once a minute to a parallel "Write-to-Excel" loop.
Another possibly-helpful example is one I posted here about a year ago.  If you go to the Search box and type the word Revised, the first entry that pops up should be my earlier post.  I think it's a snippet -- try it out and adapt it to your problem (as far as formatting and structuring the page).
Bob Schor