When Digilent announced LabVIEW WaveForms Toolkit 2.0 earlier this month, a few additions stood out. Pattern Generator and Logic Analyzer support give students access to more of their Analog Discovery device’s digital capabilities directly from LabVIEW. Continuous oscilloscope streaming supports longer-running experiments, while expanded macOS compatibility allows students and educators to pair LabVIEW Community Edition, supported Digilent hardware, and the WaveForms Toolkit on either Windows or Mac.
But what do these updates actually look like in a lab?
With Analog Discovery 3 and LabVIEW WaveForms Toolkit 2.0, students can automate repetitive measurement and data-collection tasks, giving them more time to interpret results, compare behaviors, and understand what their measurements mean.
Here are five types of labs where that can make a difference.
1. Frequency Response and Filter Analysis
Sweeping through frequencies and recording a filter’s output by hand can quickly become tedious. With Analog Discovery 3 and the Toolkit, students can generate a signal, measure the circuit’s response, and visualize how its gain changes across a range of frequencies.
Why it works as a lab:
- Reinforces core filter and frequency-response concepts
- Reduces manual measurement and data recording
- Gives students a clear, visual representation of a filter’s behavior
2. Digital Signal and Timing Labs
This is where the Pattern Generator and Logic Analyzer support introduced in Toolkit 2.0 comes into play. Students can generate digital patterns and capture digital signals directly in LabVIEW without switching to a separate application, making it easier to explore digital timing and behavior within one graphical programming environment.
Why it works as a lab:
- Demonstrates digital timing and signal behavior
- Keeps signal generation, capture, and analysis in one environment
- Builds a foundation for more advanced digital and embedded-systems work
3. Sensor Characterization
Whether students are working with a temperature sensor, photoresistor, or potentiometer, automated data collection makes it easier to observe how a sensor responds as conditions change. Instead of stopping to record each measurement manually, students can collect a series of data points and focus on identifying patterns in the results.
Why it works as a lab:
- Connects sensor theory with measured behavior
- Makes it easier to collect and compare multiple data points
- Gives students more time to examine trends, sensitivity, and response
4. Automated Data Logging
Collecting measurements over time is a common data acquisition task in both academic and engineering applications. Toolkit 2.0’s continuous oscilloscope streaming supports longer-running acquisitions, allowing students to set up a measurement and observe how a signal changes over the course of an experiment.
Why it works as a lab:
- Introduces students to longer-duration data acquisition
- Reduces the need to record measurements manually
- Produces datasets that students can visualize and analyze
5. Electronic Component Characterization
Measuring the behavior of resistors, diodes, and transistors is a core part of many circuits courses. With an appropriate test circuit, students can automate a series of measurements and build datasets that show how component behavior changes under different conditions.
Instead of recording individual values one at a time, they can spend more of the lab comparing results and connecting the measured data to the concepts covered in class.
Why it works as a lab:
- Reinforces fundamental component behavior
- Makes side-by-side comparisons easier
- Shifts more lab time toward interpreting measured results
Putting It into Practice
These five examples are only a starting point. Future posts will take a closer look at individual experiments, including filter analysis, digital signal capture, and sensor characterization, using Analog Discovery hardware and LabVIEW WaveForms Toolkit 2.0.
Ready to start experimenting? Download LabVIEW WaveForms Toolkit 2.0 through VIPM or visit the Digilent LabVIEW Reference Manual for documentation and setup resources.
