Free LabVIEW program for instrument EFA-300
Field analyzer EFA-300 is used for measuring magnetic and electric fields in the workplace and public space. It is used for measuring electromagnetic fields in the frequency range 5 Hz - 32 kHz. With the additional module one can measure electrical field.This program supports both instruments. When you buy an instrument usually buy software for transfer of measurement data from the instrument to the computer. The programis entirely written in the
LabVIEW 8.6 programming language. This program is completely free and supports the following functions:
Visualization of measured data in real time;
Graphical view of he recorded data;
Scaling of X and Y axes;
Enable/disable recording of measured data;
Changing the measurement units;
Check the status of batteries without pulling them out of the instrument.
The instrument EFA-300 and the computer communicates via standard serial port. The defaualt baud rate is 9600 bps and can be changed temporarily to 19200 kbps during the progam execution only. When you run the program you will get the front panel presented in the figure 1.
Fig. 1 Starting front panel
You have to choose the existing serial port, measurement quantity (B or E), the wide of time window for chart and sample period. Also, you have to define the filename of the file where the measured data will be saved. At the end you can set scaling values for Y axis for magnetic induction and frequency.
If the path is empty the program will work but measured data will not be recorded on the hard disk.
After setting all this parameters you can start measurement by clicking on the upper halve of the ON/OFF
button (fig. 2). You can stop the program anytime by clicking on the lower halve of the ON/OFF button.
Fig. 2 Front panel during execution of the program
The indicator "Battery" shows the current voltage of the set of batteries. This feature is not available under manual control of the instrument.
The function buttons F1, F2, F3 and F4 on the left virtual instrument have the following meaning:
F1 - show/hide the setup parameters
F2 - enable/disable writing the measured data to file
F3 - show/hide the graph indicator
F4 - plot magnetic induction and frequency from file
When the function button Fn is pressed the small LED indicator on the button will be illuminated indicating that the button is active.
During program execution you can change the measurement units of the magnetic induction by clicking on the control "Magnetic flux density".Fig. 3 Changing of the measurement units for magnetic induction
Fig. 4 Graphical presentation of the recorded measured data
Switch "b-vis" shows/hides signal of the magnetic induction while the switch "f-vis" do the same for frequency signal.
Switch "Cursor" shows/hides the graph cursor. This cursor can be snapped to B or F curve. Drawing this cursor with the left button of the mouse you can read measured values from the selected curve.
Recording of measured data and viewing the recorded data are executed in two independent parallel while loops.
On the bottom of the right virtual instrument on the control "Freq" you can enter the desired frequency value and on the adjacent indicators you will get the reference values according to serbian low.
Download the ZIP file, unpack it in the desired directory, read the main program "EFA-300.vi" in LabVIEW and enjoy.
VISA drivers
The communication between the computer and instrument EFA-300 is implemented by VISA subVIs. If you want to create installation version of the program you should include VISA drivers.
Click on the link to access the page from which you can download a richer version of program for instrument EFA-300. This program has much greater capabilities than previous version (transferring data to PC, harmonic and FFT analyses, 3-D measurement of B or E, better graphical presentation of B(E) and F quantities). The name of the main program is "EFA 300 tab.vi".