GPScan.VI: A general-purpose LabVIEW program for scanning imaging or any application requiring synchronous analog voltage generation and data acquisition

A large number of measurement techniques involve the scanning of a probe, while a physical quantity is measured. This is for instance the case for all scanning imaging methods. Data acquisition therefore requires high acquisition rates, together with an accurate synchronization between the probe control and the measurement. The GPScan.VI program is a general purpose LabVIEW program for the control of National Instruments high-speed data acquisition boards, allowing to design scanning imaging systems. Analog output voltages are used to drive a two-dimensional scanning device, while acquisition of analog voltages and TTL pulse counting are run in parallel. Acquisition of megapixel images with pixel dwell times down to the microsecond can be reached with negligible I/O transfer time. The design can be generalized to any situation requiring high speed synchronous generation and acquisition. Program title: GPScan.VI Catalogue identifier: AEWG_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEWG_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen’s University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 1246 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 114456 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: LabVIEW (http://www.ni.com/labview/). Computer: Any machine running LabVIEW 2010 or higher. Operating system: Windows XP or higher, OS X. RAM: 5 Mbytes Classification: 20. Nature of problem: A large number of measurement techniques involve the scanning of a probe, while a physical quantity is measured. This is, for instance, the case for all scanning imaging methods. Data acquisition therefore requires high acquisition rates, together with an accurate synchronization between the probe control and the measurement. Solution method: The GPScan.VI program allows the setting up of National Instruments multifunction acquisition boards, so that analog output voltage series (used to drive the scanner / probe) are generated, while analog input and counter acquisitions are run synchronously. Restrictions: Requires National Instruments high-speed multifunction boards, such as X Series or S Series, with at least two analog outputs, and a compatible NI-DAQmx driver installed. The program has been tested on X series boards, with LabVIEW 2011, under Windows 7. Running time: Real time data acquisition. Scan