System for test and verification of the thermostat from automobile cooling system

This paper presents a PC-based system for test and verification of the thermostat from an automobile cooling system. The application measures the displacement of the thermostat valve as a function of temperature. Measurement data are plotted and then stored in a file. The application was developed in LabVIEW, the most commonly used graphical language for virtual instrumentation. For measurement and data acquisition, a module from the I-7000 series, made by ICPDAS, was used which has great performance and is very easily to use. By combining the performance of these modules with the great flexibility and stability of the LabVIEW programming language, a measurement system can be designed that assures very good accuracy, stability and reliability, with low cost.