What makes Arduino ideal for LabVIEW

The Arduino community is extremely vast with thousands and even hundreds of thousands of projects that can be found using simple searches on Google. Integrating LabVIEW with Arduino makes prototyping even simpler using the GUI environment of LabVIEW with the Arduino platform.

Officially, LabVIEW will work with the Uno and Mega 2560; however, you should be able to run it on other Arduino platforms such as the Nano. Building your own Uno board is just as simple as linking up the Arduino to LabVIEW. For detailed instructions on how to build your own Arduino Uno, check out the following URL: http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Arduino/.

Significance of using LabVIEW

LabVIEW is a graphical programming language built for engineers and scientists. With over 20 years of development behind it, it is a mature development tool that makes automation a pleasure.

The graphical system design takes out the complexity of learning C or C++, which is the native language of Arduino, and lets the user focus on getting the prototype complete.

LabVIEW significantly reduces the learning curve of development, because graphical representations are more intuitive design notations than text-based code. Tools can be accessed easily through interactive palettes, dialogs, menus, and many function blocks known as virtual instruments (VIs). You can drag-and-drop these VIs onto the Block Diagram to define the behavior of your application. This point-and-click approach shortens the time it takes to get from the initial setup to a final solution.

Skills required to use LabVIEW and Arduino

With LabVIEW primarily being designed for and targeted at scientists and engineers, it has not excluded itself from being used by hobbyists. Users who have zero programming skills have been able to take entire projects to completion by just following the intuitive process of dragging controls onto the diagram and setting it up to automate.

We have designed this book to be completely intuitive, using parts that can be easily found at your local electronic store.

Tip

To get additional support when using LabVIEW with Arduino, have a look at their forum at https://decibel.ni.com/content.