ELVIS contributes to interactive, hands-on learning
22 May 2008
National Instruments announces ELVIS II, the LabVIEW-based USB plug and play design and prototyping platform.
Based on the powerful LabVIEW graphical system design software, NI ELVIS II gives educators 12 new USB plug-and-play instruments and integration with Multisim 10.1 software for SPICE simulation to simplify the teaching of circuit design. In addition, educators can use it with a suite of third-party boards and curriculum resources to teach control design, telecommunications and microcontroller concepts.
It provides educators with the means to illustrate theoretical concepts taught in the classroom while giving students an opportunity to explore and design those concepts in an interactive environment using LabVIEW and Multisim.
The platform is backward compatibile with the previous version and has laboratory-friendly features such as USB plug-and-play connectivity and a smaller form factor to simplify set-up and lab maintenance. It has 12 of the most commonly used instruments in engineering and science laboratories, including an oscilloscope, function generator, variable power supply and isolated digital multimeter. As it is based on LabVIEW, educators can easily customise the 12 instruments or create their own using the provided source code for the instruments, according to the company.
The integration with new Multisim 10.1 software, SPICE simulation and schematic capture software enables seamless switching between simulated and acquired data, overlay simulated and measured data in the same instrument and to use a single platform when simulating or testing to provide a holistic view of the circuit design process. This can be from designing and prototyping to deployment. Multisim also includes other pedagogically relevant features such as custom in-circuit quizzes and a 3-D NI ELVIS II feature that students can use to wire their circuits on a virtual replica of the system, increasing efficiency in the laboratory.
Quanser provides three plants for teaching control design and mechatronics with NI ELVIS II and LabVIEW. Emona Instruments has also introduced the DATEx telecommunications trainer to teach telecommunications concepts using NI ELVIS II and LabVIEW.
Additionally, Freescale Semiconductor’s Microcontroller Student Learning Kits with flexible eight, 16 and 32bit microcontroller modules is compatible with NI ELVIS II and leverages the integrated instruments to teach embedded and microcontroller design.
For an online guided tour and free curriculum downloads for measurements, circuits, telecommunications and embedded and control design visit NI ELVIS. NI ELVIS II can be ordered now and is scheduled to ship in July.
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