In a move seen as strengthening remote data acquisition and supporting Modbus/TCP, ioLogik E2000 Active Ethernet I/O servers from Moxa are compatible with National Instruments LabView 8 . Moxa calls Active Ethernet I/O “a powerful new concept in remote data acquisition where I/O events trigger customized messages that are instantly sent to host computers.”
“NI LabView is very popular in the fields of monitoring, testing, and measurement,” said Andy Cheng, Moxa division manager of Active Ethernet I/O products. “Active Ethernet I/O is an opportunity to extend LabView’s remote monitoring capability.” LabView’s built-in Modbus library can easily be used to connect to an Active Ethernet I/O server. LabView also has a passive TCP software component that can instantly receive TCP/UDP messages from Active Ethernet I/O servers, without incurring additional costs.
Active Ethernet I/O server enhances flexibility of PC-based data acquisition and control systems with proactive condition-based reporting and control of I/O device status. I/O servers are traditionally passive and must be polled for data, Moxa says, the Active Ethernet I/O server reports and controls I/O status based on user-specified conditions. This report-by-exception approach, said to be new to PC-based I/O monitoring, requires less bandwidth than traditional polling methods. Critical sensor data can be obtained immediately instead being subject to polling intervals, the company says.
— Edited by Mark T. Hoske , Control Engineering editor in chief