Capacitance Measurement Grayed Out for Simulated NI ELVIS II DMM in Multisim

Updated Nov 7, 2023

Reported In

Hardware

  • NI ELVIS II+
  • NI ELVIS II

Software

  • Multisim 14.1

Driver

  • NI-ELVISmx

Issue Details

The capacitance measurement option for a simulated NI ELVIS II DM in Multisim is grayed out as seen in the image below, is this expected?

Solution

Simulated NI ELVIS II devices can pass the DC voltage and DC current values to the simulation, but the rest of options are disabled. In order to measure inductance or capacitance of a circuit you can use the LabVIEW Impedance Meter, if it is available.

Additional Information

These options are disabled because simulations part from the fact that the capacitors and inductors connected to the circuit are ideal and won't change their values. Also, a capacitance measurement would not be expected, just DC voltage and current, for them to be compared with the real measurement. 

If you connect an NI ELVIS II board to the computer and select it from the drop-down menu in the soft front panel, the options will be enabled but it will become a real acquisition and stop being a simulation.