LoadVUE (LV-1000HS-1K) User Guide

Hardware Requirements

LoadVUE (LV-1000HS-1K) will run on all Windows versions (XP, Vista, 7 and 8) in both 32 bit and 64 bit systems. It reads the data from the DI-1000HS-1K sensor interface at speeds above 1000 Hz and logs and plots the data in real time. This can be used for measuring impact forces in systems where the impact duration is in milliseconds, for example systems where some amount of damping is present. A dual-core processor is required for efficient performance. You may notice degraded performance if your computer's CPU only has one core.

Installation

Insert the LV-1000HS-1K CD-Rom into drive. The installation should start automatically. If not, browse to the CD-Rom folder and run Setup.exe to run the installation. The drivers needed to recognize the devices will also be installed automatically.

Operation

Click on the LV-1000HS-1K icon on your desktop to to start the program. The software will scan all the serial ports, detect the Loadstar Sensors load cell attached to your computer and show the main window. If more than once load cell is detected, only the first detected load cell will be used by the software

For high speed data acquisition, you will need to set the latency timer setting of the serial port to 1. This is a Windows setting. Even though the software will try to set this automatically, depending on your system configuration, this may not be possible due to elevated Windows permissions that may be required and you will need to set this manually. Please refer to Special Instructions for High Data Output Rate Sensors and Interfaces on the Loadstar Sensors' web site support pages.

If the latency settings are not reduced for high baud rate sensors, you will notice that the readings change very slowly or not at all as you load the sensors.

First Time Operation

After you run the software for the first time, some parameters for the impact force sensor kit need to be entered. Click on Tools...Set Startup Parameters. The Sensor Parameters window will be displayed as shown below. Enter the parameters provided to you and then click OK. (Please contact us at 510-274-1872 if you do not have these parameters.)

Then restart the program.

Main Window

The main window is shown next. The main areas here are the current load/force on the load cell, the peak and low forces and the graph and log areas.

Changing Units

Click on the Units area to show a drop-down menu of appropriate force units, torque units etc. Selecting one of these menu items will convert the sensor readings to the selected unit.

Resetting Peak/Low values and Changing Number of Decimals Displayed

The number of decimal places can be changed by clicking on the Increase/Decrease Decimals buttons. Peak and Low values, when displayed, can be reset by clicking on the Reset Peak/Low button. (Peaks and Lows are also reset when the Start button is clicked).

Logging Data

Data can be logged by selecting appropriate options in the log area. The data will be logged as an Excel compatible CSV file. Each reading is time-stamped (example 2.0034 sec) and the force,peak and low forces and the user defined fields are logged.

1. Check the field Log Sensor Readings to File. This will open a File Open dialog box where you can enter a file name. If the file already exists it will be overwritten. To log to a different file, click on Select File.
2. Click on Edit User Defined Field Name to specify a name for the user defined field, where you can enter a parameter for the field. Any text entered in this field will be logged along with the sensor readings.

Graph Options

Click on Graph to show the graph options window.

The following options are available:

• Graph Title - Displays a title at the top of the graph
• Scrolling or Cumulative - Select either scrolling time axis with a specified time range, for example, 10 sec. Only the latest 10 seconds of data are retained in the graph. If you want retain all the data then select the Cumulative option. Do not use the Cumulative options if you are reading the sensors for a long period - heavy demand is placed on the processors and memory.
• Y-Axis Scaling - The Y axis can be autoscaled or a minimum and maximum can be specified.
• Y-Axis Title - Specify your own title for the Y-Axis

From the Graph menu, you can also copy the current graph to the clipboard or print the graph.

Overlaying graphs

If you are running multiple tests using the same setup, you can log each the test to a separate file and then overlay the files in a single graph. Click on Graph...Overlay Graph Data Files..., then select 2 or more files from previous runs.

Reading the Sensors

After all the settings have been configured, just click Start to start reading the sensors (and log and plot the readings if selected.). Click Stop to stop reading. Click Zero at any time to zero out the loads.