xcgeek

QUOTE (Val Brown @ Mar 27 2008, 05:24 PM) I think you nailed it right on the head Val. Thank you very much.

QUOTE (crelf @ Mar 27 2008, 03:03 PM) Yes, and by "No matter which way I go," I also mean that if my research says that the best solution is still LabView, it may mean someone else other than me should do the project.

Thank you again for all the advice and encouragement. As I've been a full time programmer for so long, I readily recognize the warning signs and there are enough red flags going up to give me some pause. It certainly has given me a much clearer idea of time and effort commitement: "I have a bad feeling about this" "there can be some gotchas along the way" "but your intuition and thinking is all wrong for it." "learning a new programming language is like learning a new spoken language" "If you're not careful, your code will become utter hell to work with." "provided the schedule is long and flexible" "Either knowledgeable people to go to for help, or a nice large cushion of time to let you make some mistakes and fix some poor choices along the way." I may take PaulG's advice: "but with your background and experience in other languages it might be a lot more efficient for you" and investigate the NI Measurement Studio that would allow me to work in MS Visual Studio.NET and work in an environment I'm familiar with. Perhaps I will post a question in the "NI Developer Forum -> Software Boards -> Measurement Studio for .NET Languages" to see if people familiar with that product have an recommendations (unless someone here has experience with NI Measurement Studio.) Thank you again for all the help - No matter which way I go, I know that your responses just saved me a lot of grief, time, and tears.

QUOTE (Andrew Marles @ Mar 26 2008, 09:56 PM) The hardware controller hasn't been purchased yet, just the motors and sensors so I think this means if I'm going with LabView I should get a NI compliant controller? Thank you for all the very helpful advice. The $1600 price tag for the LabView Basics course is quite steep, but I can see that it could save considerable time. I'll have to see what the budget allows.

I have never used LabView before but am considering it for an automation control project I am thinking about taking on. I am looking for advice on how big a project this might be, how long it would take me to learn LabView for it, and when I said "thinking about" it means I also need your advice as to whether I am crazy for trying to tackle a project such as this in the first place so let me start by explaining what it is. (I apologize as I don't know the correct terminology but will do my best to explain.) The project is a computer controlled ski flex tester that would have one screw-drive pressure sensitive plunger working on a vertical plane to compress and measure flex pressure on top of the ski (directly in the middle.) There would be a second linear motion system that runs a pressure sensor and separate height measurement tool under the whole length of the ski using a highly accurate indexed stepper motor (to match position with height/pressure). So we have a total of 2 motors, 2 pressure sensors and one height sensor. It would need feedback control from the vertical pressure/plunger system, as well as data capture and database storage with a graphical analysis and GUI control interface for certain parameters (ie start test for 150lbs person). Now for the second part of the equation: me. I have 15 years of programming experience in VB, C, ASP, .NET, am strong with databases, have some experience in RS232 hardware communication, but very little robotics and only high school electronics education. So here are the questions: 1. Is LabView the correct tool for the job or is straight Visual Studio a better option? 2. What is a ball-park estimate of time for a) a lab view expert, and b) me. 3. Am I crazy to start this as a newbie? 4. It seems like there are a lot of tutorials and sites like this to help, is it reasonable to think that you can get help for specific questions and problems quickly, or are unforeseen roadblocks a real possibility. Many thanks for any help you folks can provide.