Code testing without DAQ Hardware

Is there a way to test/develop daq code without any available hardware (including 'winsound'). My students have access to virtual machines which do not have sound cards available. I would like them to be able to have some sort of "fake" analog input.

A kind of virtual experiment would be the ultimate but anything even a bunch of zeros would work. Ideally I would supply some sort of dynamic waveform which they would acquire (sample with DAQ type setting of input range and sampling freq) and process as if in the lab performing an experiment. Then they could show up in lab with more functional code and actually do the experiment with real hardware a bit more efficiently.

This is an instrumentation and dynamic systems lab (MATLAB, Simulink and QuaRC based) with everything from thermocouples and vibrating structures to QBOTS...

Thanks in advance...

Scott

[bym]

In my experience, the interfacing of the daq to the host program is where the 'rubber meets the road' and can't be simulated to any great benefit. Labview can 'simulate' a lot of their data acquisition devices, but I almost never use that functionality. A quick search of the internet turned up a US$20 thermocouple device. Is that a possibility?

Answer 1

[Rob Graessle]

NI-DAQmx and the Measurement & Automation Explorer will allow you to create a simulated device. In MATLAB, the simulated device will appear just as if it was a real device, but it would return "fake" data.

[Joseph Schmitz]

I have attempted to do this with a NI compactDAQ device. I experience an issue where i can see the DAQ (simulated) hardware but cannot interact with it. I have not found a way to actually get the simulated DAQ device to begin an acquisition.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

In theory you could write a device driver which claimed to be a sound device (or A/D converter) and which extracted the samples from a file.

I don't think it would be especially fun to do that. :(