NI ELVIS Has Entered the Lab

Data acquisition systems (DAQ) are powerful tools that are essential components for solving a wide range of engineering problems. LabVIEW, a DAQ developed by National Instruments (NI), employs a graphical interface for signal acquisition, measurement analysis, and data presentation. The NI educational laboratory virtual instrumentation suite (NI ELVIS) provides a LabVIEW-based DAQ for science and engineering labs. This paper describes four electrical engineering experiments that use NI ELVIS's virtual instruments to perform experiments in a sophomore instrumentation lab. NI ELVIS provides a low cost solution that provides a suite of virtual laboratory instruments, a PCI multifunctional DAQ, a workstation, and a prototype board. The combination of this suite of devices and a computer provide the instruments necessary for developing and implementing engineering laboratory experiments.