Ed Dickens

Do want to be part of the inaugural GDevCon N.A. in Boulder, Co. this July?
We need a few more presentations to fill up our schedule so submit your idea now before we run out space.

https://gdevconna.org/deadline-extended-to-feb-29th/

Holly and I are registered. I'll see if I can get management to break free some funds for a door prize.

Looking forward to it again.

Are there contingency plans in case of rain? 

Also, I have last minute surprise door prize.

Since I haven't seen anything...

Who's up for our annual Sunday evening gathering at The Gingerman?

We have openings for an experienced Test Engineer to join our test engineering teams in the Iowa community of Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Fargo, ND. DISTek offers competitive salaries, a flexible work schedule, and a full range of benefits. Please join us for an exciting and challenging career with the potential that only a growing high technology company can offer. Below is adescription of the Test Engineer.The Test Engineer is responsible for the design, development, deployment and support of test systems for electronic/electrical products. Position includes high-level functions such as test planning, detailed design and development of test software foroff-highway vehicles. The Test Engineer is required to review and interpret customer requirements and specifications and then develop and produce plans and procedures required by the customer.

For more info and to apply:

http://ww2.distek.com/careers/postings/22/

Holly and I are registered and will have a door prize from DISTek once again.

This year, DISTek is offering up a Quad-core, 1.6GHz 2G RAM 8G Flash Android Mini PC.

• Connects to your HD TV via HDMI 
• 3.5mm headset jack (mic embedded)
• Micro USB, USB and SD card
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• Bluetooth
• DLNA
• Miracast
  

NIWeek registration - Check

Flights booked - Check

Hotel reserved (Radisson) - Check

LAVA BBQ Tickets - Check

I guess I'm ready.

Holly and I will be getting Sunday about 4:30 and heading home Friday morning.

I (and once again, Holly) will be there sans bells this year. Too many complaints last year.

I will however have a nice doorprize in hand. 

• Develop new business/revenue opportunities from leads generated through all means of marketing
  
• Ensure positive ongoing customer relationships, satisfaction, and repeat business
  
• Gather, develop and translate customer requirements into product solutions
  
• Develop and deliver effective sales presentations, proposals and proofs-of-concepts
  
• Maintain effective communication with DISTek senior management and other business/support areas
  
• Effectively promote “the DISTek Way”
  
• All other sales and business related duties as assigned
  

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, business or related technical field
  
• 2+ years experience in business to business sales
  
• Technical engineering aptitude in area of company products and services
  
• Knowledge of sales and advertising principles, strategies and techniques
  
• Superior interpersonal, organizational, planning and communication skills and the ability to present complex technical information in a clear, concise and personable manner to customers, employees and management
  
• Strong leadership skills with the ability to work well with engineering team members, customers and senior management
  
• Proficiency with MS Office products
  
• Ability to travel 50% of the time or as required
  

• Experience with multiple sales and marketing strategies
  
• Background in automation, electronics and electrical systems
  
• Self-motivated with ability to meet deadlines
  

As DISTek celebrates it's 20th anniversary today, we are once again looking to grow.

DISTek Integration, Inc. is a provider of precise electronic systems and product testing needs. As an engineering systems solutions provider, we partner with our clientsto design smarter, safer, and more sophisticated machines and electronics operations.

Due to growth, we have two immediate openings for Test Engineers to join our teams in our Cedar Falls, Ia. engineering center and a new team we are forming in Fargo,ND.

Both of these positions would require relocating to the Cedar Falls, Ia. or Fargo, ND. area.

DISTek offers competitive salaries, a flexible work schedule, and a full range of benefits. Please join us for an exciting and challenging career with the potential that only agrowing high technology company can offer. Below is a description of the Test Engineer.

Test Engineer

The Test Engineer is responsible for the design, development, deployment and support of test systems for electronic products. Position includes high-level functions suchas test planning, detailed design and development of test software. The Test Engineer is required to acquire, document, review, and interpret customer requirements andspecifications. From these requirements, the engineer will design and develop the solution and produce plans and procedures required by the customer.

Primary functions of the Test Engineer include:

• Producing test software using National Instruments LabVIEW, TestStand, LabWindows/CVI or other software to meet customer requirements
  
• Interfacing with customers to help develop requirements
  
• Developing test plans, schedules, and other project documentation
  
• Coordinating field tests, lab tests, supplier tests and government certification tests as required
  
• Using schematics and device data sheets to understand equipment functionality and develop necessary test criteria
  
• When appropriate, conducting required testing, analysis of data and writing reports
  
• Integrating and commissioning of systems at customer facilities
  

Key technical skills and qualifications needed are:

• 4 year degree in an applicable Engineering or Science program or a Technical degree plus equivalent work experience
  
• Minimum 3 years experience within an electronic product test development and production environment using automated test equipment
  
• Proficient in National Instruments LabVIEW-based programming, National Instruments
  
• TestStand programming; NI Certified LabVIEW Developer or Architect preferred
  
• Strong PC skills
  

Other desired skills are:

• Familiarity with C/C++ programming
  
• Experience with data management, data acquisition, device control and instrument communication
  
• Willingness to achieve certification through National Instruments program
  
• Good written and oral communication skills
  
• Ability to work within a team (internal/customer) environment
  
• Knowledge in software test tools and communication protocols
  
• Experience working with embedded systems running real-time operating systems
  
• Minimal travel may be required within the US and abroad
  
• Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Project
  

To apply please send your resume, cover letter and salary requirements to hr@distek.com.

I will be there with 2 others.

Thanks

Doesn't having identically named values in a cluster cause you issues when developing?

Anyways, IMHO identical items should not be used.

One problem I can see with this is that INI files are designed so that order of the sections/keys in the file does not matter (hence the name-value paradigm).

E.g. If in the future, the first item was removed from your cluster, then on reading an existing config file, the API would now return the first item's value when reading the original second item, and therefore introduce a bug into your code.

Plus, if your cluster had the following:

String_Name = "Hello World"

Boolean_Name = True

[unnamed] = False

[unnamed] = True

The INI file would get written as:

[Cluster_Name]

String_Name = "Hello World"

Boolean_Name-1 = "TRUE"

Unnamed_Variable-1 = "FALSE"

Unnamed_Variable-2 = "TRUE"

When reading this back in, we would have to assume that "Unnamed_Variable-1" is linked to "Cluster Element 2" and "Unnamed_Variable-2" is linked to "Cluster Element 3". Again this could possibly introduce a bug in your application.

I agree that clusters should not have duplicate or unnamed elements.

I'd be more inclined to say the VI should check for duplicate names and throw an error if it finds any.

Losing data is something we certainly want to avoid.

For some reason, I'm no longer getting emails about replies to this thread. Not sure sure why, it shows I'm monitoring it.

I like the "in recursive call?" terminal option, but in the case of using a path for a section name (or anything that already has a '\' in it) the section name will still end up with double slashes in the config file. Though this is probably needed due to the '\' being the ini file escape character. But at least it would be predictable.

I'm trying to write an abstract class for serializable (to disk) objects, and I'd hoped to use the open-g VIs to do it. One design constraint is that I want to be able to write an object description by hand or from another application/language, given prior knowledge of the object (from a design document, etc.). If the number of escape characters in the section name varies, that becomes a lot harder to do.

Just to make sure I understand, you are looking to be able to write the INI file by hand that will define the cluster?

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/6893 There's a table here that shows 8.2.1 is the earliest version compatible with Vista x32 or x64.

I couldn't install 8.6.x on Win7 even messing with the Compatibility settings. I had to install a WinXP Virtual Machine.

It works pretty good, but networking to an RT system can be a pain since it has to pass through a virtual network card to get to real one. I have not tried any other hardware.

I've been playing with this a bit and I am able to duplicate your issue. A cluster of clusters as the "key-value" increases the number of extra slashes added to the Section name.

However the "Read Key (Variant).vi" still handles reading all the extra slashes correctly.

Can you give us a use case where the extra slashes are causing an issue?

Do you have a need to read the config file with something other than the "Read Key (Variant).vi"?

Good catch. We'll look into it and post an update.

It does look interesting. I guess somebody at Viewpoint needs a lesson in marketing.

I wonder how it compares to the JKISVN tool?

You should be able to read a devices serial number using DAQmx property nodes without LabVIEW installed. Don't have my laptop right now so I can't verify this. If this is correct, there's no reason to change how you currently doing this.

I would write the serial number to a config file key so it can be easily changed if they ever need to change the card. You could even create a utility or routine in your application to let the user select the proper card if the listed serial number isn't found in the system.

DISTek Integration, Inc. is a provider of precise electronic systems and product testing needs. As an engineering systems solutions provider, we partner with our clients to design smarter, safer, and more sophisticated machines and electronics operations.

Due to growth, we have two immediate openings for Test Engineers to join our teams in our Cedar Falls, Ia. engineering center and a new team we are forming in Fargo, ND.

Both of these positions would require relocating to the Cedar Falls or Fargo area.

DISTek offers competitive salaries, a flexible work schedule, and a full range of benefits. Please join us for an exciting and challenging career with the potential that only a growing high technology company can offer. Below is a description of the Test Engineer.

Test Engineer

The Test Engineer is responsible for the design, development, deployment and support of test systems for electronic products. Position includes high-level functions such as test planning, detailed design and development of test software. The Test Engineer is required to acquire, document, review, and interpret customer requirements and specifications. From these requirements, the engineer will design and develop the solution and produce plans and procedures required by the customer.

Primary functions of the Test Engineer include:

• Producing test software using National Instruments LabVIEW, TestStand, LabWindows/CVI or other software to meet customer requirements
• Interfacing with customers to help develop requirements
• Developing test plans, schedules, and other project documentation
• Coordinating field tests, lab tests, supplier tests and government certification tests as required
• Using schematics and device data sheets to understand equipment functionality and develop necessary test criteria
• When appropriate, conducting required testing, analysis of data and writing reports
• Integrating and commissioning of systems at customer facilities

• 4 year degree in an applicable Engineering or Science program or a Technical degree plus equivalent work experience
• Minimum 3 years experience within an electronic product test development and production environment using automated test equipment
• Proficient in National Instruments LabVIEW-based programming, National Instruments
• TestStand programming; NI Certified LabVIEW Developer or Architect preferred
• Strong PC skills

Other desired skills are:

• Familiarity with C/C++ programming
• Experience with data management, data acquisition, device control and instrument communication
• Willingness to achieve certification through National Instruments program
• Good written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work within a team (internal/customer) environment
• Knowledge in software test tools and communication protocols
• Experience working with embedded systems running real-time operating systems
• Minimal travel may be required within the US and abroad
• Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Project

To apply please send your resume, cover letter and salary requirements to hr@distek.com.

This has become somewhat of a tradition over last several NIWeek's.

If you haven't been to The Ginger Man, and you enjoy a cold beer or two, this is the place to meet. They have about 100 differnt beers on tap and a nice outdoor seating area where we grab a couple tables.

So if you're getting to Austin on Sunday, people usually start showing up around 8:00. Look for us out back.

Directions and more info on The Ginger Man

I finally got around to signing up.

We've decided to drive down this year, so we will have a vehichle and could take 2 or 3 others.