Integrating data from Dracal USB sensors in LabVIEW via Wi-Fi & ethernet using SensGate

Dracal USB all-in-one sensors and DAQ

Dracal Technologies’ USB sensors offer a simple and dependable solution for accurate environmental measurements, easily integrating with your existing system. For enhanced accuracy, an optional user-calibration feature allows customization to meet your specific needs. Additionally, the Virtual COM protocol option (not required for this tutorial) ensures smooth integration across various platforms, providing versatile data communication capabilities. These durable USB sensors are accompanied by free, user-friendly USB DAQ software for visualization and logging, along with a full set of code examples to facilitate fast integration with platforms like LabVIEW, Python, C++, and others.

Step 1. Get your equipment

You will need the following elements:

• 1 X PC (Windows, Mac or Linux) with LabVIEW installed
• 1 X Dracal USB sensor
• 1 X SensGate

Step 2. Download the free DracalView software & tools

Download our free USB DAQ (Windows, Mac, Linux), which includes the DracalView graphical interface and interfacing tools. When you receive your Dracal USB sensor, you’ll be able to get to work straight away, using the DracalView GUI to quickly visualize your temperature and relative humidity measurements. For calibratable models, calibration can also be performed intuitively with DracalView.

Step 3. Connect the SensGate to your network

Step-by-step procedure to connect your SensGate to an existing network here. If you prefer to create your own sub-network for your project, follow this step.

Step 4. Download and run your ready-made LabVIEW model

Download and run the model:

 Dracal_VCP_WiFi&Ethernet_Model.vi 

This model is presented as an example and can easily be simplified or adapted to your set-up. The tool used to poll the data is the command-line tool dracal-sensgate-get. In this example, the 3 real channels of a PTH450 product are polled and displayed. If your product measures a different number of parameters, simply adjust the final number of outputs in the model to match the number of outputs in your product.

The final data visualization elements are practical to start with, but are not necessary in an automation context. 

Here are the block diagram and front panel of the completed model:

Block Diagram

Front Panel

Conclusion

Setting up a wireless sensor network tailored to your LabVIEW installation takes only a few minutes. What’s more, with SensGate, you can do it without involving your IT team, creating an independent, secure network that you can connect to.