Add to Smart Dust Lab on p. 7 of the Guide starting above “Illumination sensor …”:
Accurate Measurement of Thermistor Characteristic using LabVIEW
In this part of the lab you can use (a) an accurate IC temperature sensor chip (the XXX from XXX) to measure the temperature produced when (b) a xenon lamp shines on both the Jameco thermistor and the IC temperature sensor, heating them to measurable temperatures. To make the control of the equipment and the collection of data easier (we hope!) you can run the experiment using pre-written LabVIEW programs.
LabVIEW Use
You will need to power both the lamp using an adjustable DC power supply (varying from 0 to XXX volts) and the IC temperature sensor using a fixed DC voltage (XXX volts). The HP XXX dual power supply will supply both devices. The LabVIEW program (found on XXX) will adjust the variable supply in steps that you choose; you can set the other half of the power supply to XXX volts manually. The HP XXX multimeter, controlled by the LabVIEW program, will measure the resistance of the thermistor each time after the temperatures of the sensor and the thermistor have stabilized (XXX seconds appears an adequate time to wait after varying the lamp input).
You will use a so-called “breakout box” supplied by National Instruments to help make these measurements. XXX instructions on the breakout box and connecting and setting up LabVIEW including being sure that the cable length parameter has been set.
Take measurements and compare the thermistor resistance vs temperature plot with the proper characteristic take from Fig. 3B off the Internet. Comment on the procedure and the results.
In addition to its use in the thermistor portion of this experiment, LabVIEW was also used to set up the spectrum analyzer used to determine the operating frequency of the Smart Dust motes (see Item 2 in the Smart Dust Report pages.