LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit Readme

June 2008

This file contains the following information about the LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit.

System Requirements

What's New in 8.6

Installation/Upgrading Instructions

Accessing the Help

Finding Examples

Known Issues

System Requirements

The computer you are using must meet the following minimum system requirements to run the PID Control Toolkit:

• Windows Vista/XP/2000.
• LabVIEW 8.6. Note that some examples might not work properly if you do not have the LabVIEW 8.6 Full or Professional Development System installed.

What's New in 8.6

The LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit includes the following new features:

• You now can use fixed-point data types with the PID (FPGA) VI.

Installation/Upgrading Instructions

You can install all of your LabVIEW products—including LabVIEW and the PID Control Toolkit—using the LabVIEW 8.6 Platform DVDs. Refer to the LabVIEW DVD Installation Instructions or the LabVIEW Release Notes, which are available in your LabVIEW box, for information about the LabVIEW Platform DVDs.

Complete the following steps to install the LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit from the PID Control Toolkit installation CD.

Note  Some virus detection programs interfere with the installer. Disable any automatic virus detection programs before you install. After installation, check your computer for viruses and enable any virus detection programs you disabled.

1. Log on as an administrator or as a user with administrator privileges.
2. Insert the LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit installation CD and follow the instructions that appear on the screen.
3. Activate your LabVIEW products using the NI License Manager.

Accessing the Help

The LabVIEW PID Control Toolkit User Manual contains conceptual information about using the PID Control Toolkit. Complete the following steps to access this manual. Open this manual by selecting Start»All Programs»National Instruments»LabVIEW 8.6»LabVIEW Manuals and opening PID_User_Manual.pdf or by navigating to the labview\manuals directory and opening PID_User_Manual.pdf.

The LabVIEW PID Control VIs Help contains reference information about the PID Control Toolkit. Complete the following steps to access this help file.

1. Launch LabVIEW.
2. Select Help»Search the LabVIEW Help to launch the LabVIEW Help.
3. Click the Contents tab.
4. Navigate to the Toolkits»PID Control VIs top-level topic.

Finding Examples

Refer to the labview\examples\control directory for example VIs that demonstrate common tasks using the PID Control Toolkit. You also can access these VIs by selecting Help»Find Examples from the pull-down menu and selecting Toolkits and Modules»PID Control in the NI Example Finder window. You can modify an example VI to fit an application, or you can copy and paste from one or more examples into a VI that you create.

Known Issues

The LabVIEW 8.6 PID Control Toolkit includes the following known issues:

• Some VIs break if you do not have the LabVIEW FPGA Module installed. The PID Control Toolkit depends on certain VIs in the FPGA Module, so if you mass compile the PID Control Toolkit, certain VIs break.

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Trademarks

National Instruments, NI, ni.com, and LabVIEW are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation. Refer to the Terms of Use section on ni.com/legal for more information about National Instruments trademarks.

Patents

For patents covering the National Instruments products, refer to the appropriate location: Help»Patents in your software, the patents.txt file on your CD, or ni.com/patents.