A versatile LabVIEW™ environment for communicating with Dallas-Maxim 1-wire™ devices

This paper presents a set of software tools using Lab VIEW to communicate with the 1-Wire family of integrated circuit devices produced by Dallas-Maxim. These tools have many applications in engineering and science education where a simple computer interface is needed to make some physical measurements and/or control some physical actions. Lab VIEW software is well known in the field and provides an excellent graphical programming environment that runs on both IBM-Compatible (PC) and Macintosh (Mac) computer platforms. The 1-Wire family of devices includes temperature sensors, A/D converters, digital I/O, counters, and digital potentiometers. Multiple devices can be simultaneously connected to the host computer using only two-conductor wire (one wire for data/power and one wire for ground). Each device contains a unique identification number that allows it to be individually addressed and controlled. The software tools presented here are completely self-contained within Lab VIEW with no external code or libraries. This allows them to be used with any Lab VIEW version (tested on 3.1 through 6.1 and student 6i) or platform (PC or Mac). The software is also structured such that many 1-Wire device applications can be run simultaneously without collision. An overview of the hardware is provided and examples of communicating with the devices using Lab VIEW are given.