NIWeek: New Ethernet data acquisition platform

New National Instruments CompactDAQ System is said to provide high-speed, distributed sensor measurements. Chassis holds eight I/O modules for 256 channels of electrical, physical, mechanical or acoustic signals in 25 cm by 9 cm by 9 cm, rugged form factor, using standard Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure. More than 50 modules are available.

August 4, 2010

National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) announced the new Ethernet-based NI CompactDAQ modular data acquisition system, at its NIWeek meeting on Aug. 3. The DAQ system combines the ease of use and low cost of a data logger with the performance and flexibility of modular instrumentation, the company said. The new NI cDAQ-9188 chassis is designed to hold eight I/O modules for measuring up to 256 channels of electrical, physical, mechanical or acoustic signals in a small (25 x 9 x 9 cm), rugged form factor. With more than 50 I/O modules to choose from, engineers and scientists can build remote or distributed, high-speed measurement systems using standard Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure. In addition, NI CompactDAQ simplifies initial setup with zero configuration networking technology and a built-in, Web-based configuration and monitoring utility.

“We chose NI CompactDAQ because of the flexibility offered by a diverse set of I/O modules and the scalability of Ethernet infrastructure,” said Randy Recob, senior test engineer at Sub-Zero Inc. “The flexibility of Ethernet allows us to more easily standardize our test systems by eliminating many of the physical constraints required by more traditional PC interfaces.” Recob said reasons for use include  measurement accuracy, system stability, and ease of use.

The NI product uses patented NI Signal Streaming technology to deliver high-bandwidth data over Ethernet to a host computer. The streaming provides the ability to maintain bidirectional analog and digital waveform over a TCP/IP connection. With NI-STC3 timing and synchronization technology, each chassis also can manage up to seven hardware-timed I/O tasks at different sample rates, including analog I/O, digital I/O and counter/timer operations. The chassis operate in a temperature range of -20 to 55 degrees Celsius and can withstand up to 30 g shock and 3 g vibration. Specifications are suitable for test applications on the benchtop, in the field or on the production line, the company said.

In addition to the Ethernet chassis, the NI CompactDAQ platform includes a four- and an eight-slot USB chassis and NI C Series I/O modules. NI offers more than 50 C Series modules for NI CompactDAQ systems, each is hot-swappable and auto-detectable for simplified setup. C Series modules offer integrated signal conditioning and multiple connectivity options to create custom, mixed-measurement systems specific to the needs of an application. One analog input module can,acquire up to four channels of simultaneous 1 MS/s voltage inputs for measuring high-speed signals, such as ballistic pressure or ultrasonic transducers.

NI-DAQmx driver software, which is included with NI CompactDAQ, goes beyond a basic device driver to deliver increased productivity and performance. With NI-DAQmx, engineers and scientists can log data for simple experiments or develop a complete test system in NI LabVIEW, NI LabWindows/CVI, ANSI C/C++ or Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. A consistent API means that an application developed for an NI CompactDAQ USB chassis will work with an NI CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis without software changes.

NI LabVIEW graphical programming makes it possible for engineers and scientists to develop sophisticated measurement, test and control systems using intuitive graphical icons and wires that resemble a flowchart. The multiple timing engines featured on NI CompactDAQ chassis complement the multicore optimizations in LabVIEW to make programming multiple measurement tasks in parallel easy. The software integrates with thousands of other hardware devices and provides hundreds of built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization.

Learn more about NI CompactDAQ Ethernet data acquisition system at www.ni.com/new_compactdaq.

Sub-Zero offers dual refrigeration designs, a technology said to preserve food freshness longer. Each unit is tested for at least five hours, the company said. www.subzero.com

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National Instruments: 3 distributed I/O hardware platforms

– Edited by Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com.