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A VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING SOIL ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Automation Technology for Off-Road Equipment,Proceedings of the 7-8 October 2004 Conference (Kyoto, Japan)Publication Date 7 October 2004  701P1004.(doi:10.13031/2013.17862)
Authors:   Y. He, L.L. Lin, H.H. Yu
Keywords:   Virtual instruments, Soil EC, LabVIEW, Graphical programming

A VI-based instrument capable of fast acquiring and real-time measuring soil EC was designed to acquire and measure soil EC effectively and accurately. This VI system consisted of a DAQ card 6024E, a soil EC sensor, a temperature sensor, signal conditioning module and etc. Compared with traditional instrument, the VI differed greatly in system development and design due to the application of common graphical language LabVIEW. So the key technologies of the VI, software design, was analyzed and debated. Considering the effects caused by the changes of soil temperature, the temperature correction method was proposed to automatically eliminate measurement errors. As a kind of real-time instrument, the VI can be used to acquire and measure soil EC at various temperature instantly. In addition, functions, such as data display, data storage, data print and network transmitting, were conveniently realized. The precision tests of three KCl standard solutions (different concentration) were finished through the VI. The results of experiments validated not only higher accuracy but also strong practicality of the VI for measuring soil EC. The study provides a convenient method for valid measurements of multi-parameters.

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