Customisable Monitoring and Control Systems

National Instruments has released the 8-slot NI 9154 MXI-Express RIO expansion chassis and the 4-slot NI 9146 Ethernet RIO expansion chassis. CompactRIO expansion chassis scale the breadth of the C Series platform to applications requiring hundreds or even thousands of I/O channels. Engineers can gain full control of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) capabilities inside both chassis using the NI LabVIEW FPGA Module, which enables custom inline processing, closed-loop control, synchronisation, and custom timing and triggering.

“The performance, customisation, and expansion potential of the CompactRIO platform makes it an excellent long-term, scalable investment,” said Albion W. Knight IV, President of Green Mountain Research, who is using CompactRIO and the MXI-Express RIO expansion system to create a next-generation missile test platform.

NI 9154 Features
• High-throughput MXI-Express x1 interface for 200 MB/s multichassis streaming bandwidth
• Access to thousands of I/O channels from a single controller by daisy chaining multiple CompactRIO devices, NI PXI chassis, NI industrial controllers or PCs
• Support for up to eight C Series mixed-signal-conditioned I/O modules, enabling direct connectivity to any sensor on any bus

NI 9146 Features
• Simplified software experience, which helps engineers seamlessly add distributed monitoring and control to any Ethernet network
• Instant access to FPGA-enabled I/O using LabVIEW from any Windows PC or LabVIEW Real-Time controller
• Diagnostic and auto-configuration features that simplify installation, operation and maintenance
• Low power consumption, quick startup times and rugged industrial construction

Wireless I/O

National Instruments has announced a new wireless gateway and two new measurement nodes that extend the capabilities of the NI wireless sensor network (WSN) platform and illustrate the company’s commitment to wireless measurement technology. With NI LabVIEW system design software, engineers can easily integrate wired and wireless measurement and control systems and deploy autonomous programs to WSN nodes that perform local control, data analysis and event-based alarming or notification.

 “Some of the world’s most challenging applications require a solution that combines both wired and wireless measurement and control systems,” said Jamie Smith, director of embedded systems product marketing for NI. “With the new WSN C Series gateway, NI is one of the only companies that can offer a complete, reconfigurable platform for these hybrid systems.”

Product Features NI 9795 C Series Gateway • Aggregates measurement data from distributed WSN nodes, making data available within deployed LabVIEW Real-Time applications running on CompactRIO •  Adds to existing programmable and nonprogrammable WSN gateways to offer choices for cost and flexibility NI WSN-3230 (1-port RS232) and NI WSN-3231 (1-port RS485) Serial Nodes •  Features one serial port and two digital I/O channels for discrete inputs, event detection and programmatic control • Embeds query and parse algorithms directly on WSN node with LabVIEW WSN Module to create autonomous programmable interface to a variety of serial-based instruments, sensors and control boards

New electronic design specialty

National Instruments has announced the Electronic Design Specialty for NI Alliance Partner Network members with specialised skills in custom electronics. The Electronic Design Specialty identifies trusted experts for customers looking to extend and customise NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware products, including NI CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO and NI FlexRIO, to meet their application needs. For specific customer applications that require specialised I/O or a unique form factor, these partners build RIO Mezzanine Cards (RMC) for NI Single-Board RIO C Series modules using the CompactRIO Module Development Kit (MDK) and NI FlexRIO adapter modules.

“NI RIO hardware and NI LabVIEW system design software give us an off-the-shelf platform for designing advanced embedded control and monitoring systems,” said Terry Coleman Sr., president of Tecnova. “With the openness of the NI embedded platform, as part of the Electronic Design Specialty, we can further customise NI RIO hardware when customers or applications require niche features that the NI platform cannot solve, such as specialised I/O or unique form factors.”

Alliance Partners with the Electronic Design Specialty provide comprehensive embedded design services to NI customers working on advanced control and monitoring applications. Requirements for the specialty include business stability, software design capabilities, LabVIEW developer certification, expertise in NI RIO technology and electronics design and manufacturing capabilities. The following Alliance Partners are inaugural members of the Electronic Design Specialty:

• · S.E.A. Datentechnik GmbH, Troisdorf, (D)
• · Tecnova, Chicago, (IL USA)
• · Cyth Systems, San Diego, (CA USA)
• · WireFlow, Göteborg, (S)
• · Boston Engineering, Boston (MASS USA)
• · Step Automation and Test, Six-Fours-les-Plages, (F)

An integral part of the NI graphical system design approach, NI RIO hardware combined with LabVIEW system design software provides a commercial off-the-shelf solution to simplify development and shorten time to market when designing advanced control, monitoring and test systems. NI RIO hardware, which includes CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO, R Series boards and PXI-based NI FlexRIO, features an architecture with powerful floating-point processors, reconfigurable field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and modular I/O. All NI RIO hardware components are programmed with LabVIEW to give engineers the ability to rapidly create custom timing, signal processing and control for I/O without requiring expertise in low-level hardware description languages or board-level design.

RIO technology platform extended

NI CompactRIO Module Development Kit and RIO Mezzanine Card Expand Possibilities for Custom I/O  

National Instruments has announced a new version of the NI CompactRIO Module Development Kit (MDK) and the introduction of the RIO Mezzanine Card (RMC) specification for NI Single-Board RIO. These additions expand the options for adding specialized or custom I/O to packaged and board-level embedded control and monitoring systems. With these technologies, system integrators and OEMs now can fully integrate custom electronics with the proven and reliable NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) hardware systems and provide their users with the same experience that scientists and engineers expect from NI products.

“The new CompactRIO Module Development Kit improves our ability to create complementary embedded modules to serve our customers and build our business,” said Wolfram Koerver, program manager for CompactRIO modules at S.E.A. Datentechnik GmbH, a company that provides advanced products and solutions in the field of industrial automation and measuring technology. “We designed a RIO Mezzanine Card and NI Single-Board RIO into our BMX Embedded Measurement and Control Platform in a much shorter timeframe than a full-custom solution. With the RIO Mezzanine Card feature, we now can provide cost-effective solutions for higher volume applications which require specialty I/O and communication features.”

Incorporating updates based on customer feedback, version 2.0 of the CompactRIO MDK provides engineers and scientists additional time-saving resources that simplify the processes of creating any custom module. The 2.0 version features a new field-programmable gate array (FPGA) communication core that automatically implements NI technology best practices and low-level housekeeping tasks including module detection, identification, data transfer and other common functions. By starting with the NI communication core, engineers can access years of NI research, development and optimization to accelerate their design process and maximize compatibility of custom modules within the RIO ecosystem. The new MDK also includes slot-agnostic code generation and an elemental I/O node paradigm, making it possible for module designers to provide the same user experience whether engineers and scientists use third-party modules or NI modules.

Additionally, NI Single-Board RIO devices now feature an expansion connector for an RMC. The RMC connector provides a method for adding application-specific custom circuitry to NI Single-Board RIO, including a combination of analog or digital I/O or processor-based peripheral ports, including CAN, UART and USB. The high-density, high-bandwidth RMC connector exposes up to 96 digital I/O lines from the reconfigurable FPGA, making it an ideal platform for building high-speed electronics applications.

An integral part of the NI graphical system design approach, NI RIO technology combines NI LabVIEW system design software with commercial off-the-shelf hardware to simplify development and shorten time to market when designing advanced control, monitoring and test systems. NI RIO hardware, which includes CompactRIO, NI Single-Board RIO, R Series boards and PXI-based NI FlexRIO, features an architecture with powerful floating-point processors, reconfigurable FPGAs and modular I/O. All NI RIO hardware components are programmed with LabVIEW to give engineers the ability to rapidly create custom timing, signal processing and control for I/O without requiring expertise in low-level hardware description languages or board-level design.