Electronic – Can LabVIEW be used instead of an oscilloscope to measure signals

buyinglabviewmeasurementoscilloscope

I've been thinking about buying an oscilloscope for self usage. However, searching for oscilloscopes on Google reveals that they are very expensive – the cheapest I found was about $200.

It turns out, however, that my university provides a license to LabVIEW for students. I have used LabVIEW before, and know that it can be used to measure and display varies signals and measurements.

So all I need is a data acquisition card, such as this one https://www.ebay.com/itm/National-Instruments-USB-6501-Data-Acquisition-Card-NI-DAQ-DIO/153961979967?epid=153445569&hash=item23d8d9603f:g:GIAAAOSwGhRe21we

My question is whether or not LabVIEW can replace an oscilloscope for signal measuring, or if an oscilloscope is something that you just can't replace.

Best Answer

Sort of, but you won't be really happy with it.

LabVIEW only replaces the display end of an oscilloscope. You need a data acquisition card to take the place of the oscilloscope hardware - you know that since you've already picked out a NI DAQ.

The DAQ you picked out appears to be digital IO only, so it wouldn't be much good as an oscilloscope.

In any event, there's not a full featured oscilloscope program for LabVIEW that you could use. You'd have to implement it yourself.

A good (and fast) data acquisition card from NI would cost as much as a (low end) regular oscilloscope - and the low end scope would perform better as an oscilloscope than LabVIEW and some home grown VI.