Interactive Ball-and-Beam Environment

T he Ball and Beam assembly consists of a specially designed track on which a stainless steel ball can roll. One side of the track is a nickel-chromium wire-wound resistor and the other is a steel rod. When the ball rolls on these two components, it acts as a wiper similar to that of a potentiometer. The position of the ball along the track is obtained by measuring the voltage at the steel rod when the sensor resistor is properly biased. The two leads from the resistor fasten to a connecting strip on the support block. These are in turn connected to one 240-Ohm resistor each. In addition, a wire connected to the steel rod attaches to the connecting strip.

LabVIEW is a graphical programming system designed for data acquisition, data analysis, and instrument control. LabVIEW can run on a number of systems including PC Windows, Macintosh, and VXI systems, and is transportable from one system to another. Programming an application in LabVIEW is very different from programming in a text-based language such as C or Basic. LabVIEW uses graphical symbols (icons) to describe programming actions. Data flow is "wired" into a block diagram. Since LabVIEW is graphical and based on a windows type system, it is often much easier to start using it than a typical language.

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