Aurora

Well maybe 2^63-1 when I eventually get my hands on a 64-bit processor

For now - 2^31-1 ...

A number of "real time" applications can be solved with a bit of creative thinking and a DAQ device. For this app you may want to consider using an entry level M-Series DAQ device. 8 of the digital I/O lines are capable of buffered I/O. you could load the series of 1's and 0's from your file into a buffer and then ouput it to one of the digital outputs using the devices HW clock. At the same time you may be able to read the digital input at the same rate. You may be able to use the NI 6503 as well - it has the funcionality of an 8255 interface. I've only worked with the NI 6533 and buffered digital I/O, but the M-Series device should work.

One workaround would be to use VI Server to open the subVI and then move it over the position you want it in the main app - while it is in edit mode, it will still show the window around the subVI panel.

Stay away from Celeron based processors. They are lower cost, but no good for high end DAQ applications. I have a 1.6Ghz Centrino which handles most apps quite well. Consider a P4 (battery life is comparatively short) or Pentium M (used in the new generation NI PXI embedded controllers). Consider what else you may be using the laptop for before making a purchase - you generally don't need all the extras something like a Dell Latitude has to offer. Most new portable DAQ devices are USB based and in the future there may be ExpressCard devices as well. Rather opt for a laptop with an ExpressCard slot than the older PCMCIA slots if you are going to start with a USB device.

Locals and property nodes are equally bad. Both cause thread swaps to the user interface thread to access the data of the front panel item. Rule of thumb is to use property nodes to read/write values if you read/write other properties as well, otherwise use a local. Wires remain the best way of transferring data even though they somes look untidy. I generally avoid locals like the plague since tracking where you've used them can become a bit hectic in a large app.

I see you have LV7.1. If you are able to get LV8.0/8.20 Student edition, you may be able to run the Matlab code as is in a MathScript structure. It may require some modification.

Does seem strange. Unless you can find an alternative, you could try the following: Make a bakup of your system registry Open MAX and export your HW configuration Uninstall all NI SW Reboot Delete the National Instruments folder in Program Files - make sure you backup any configuration files Reboot for good measure Run regedit and search for "National Instruments" Delete the appropriate registry entries. Reboot and try to install LV again. I'd recommend this as a last resort before formatting - I've done this on previous occassions with limited success. Searching through the system registry takes some time and I've usually taken educated guesses as to which keys to delete. You could try using a registry cleaning tool - some may be reference on the NI support site Good luck

End of Summer up North just means the beginning of Summer down South

Hi You may want to consider using a hardware gateway to do this. The following link could be a start - http://www.ni.com/comm/third_party.htm. I see you're using 7.1 so you could possibly use the Modbus library VIs available for LV to communicate with a gateway that will in turn access the PLC data. LV 8.0 and newer allows you to enable a Modbus IO server using the shared variable engine. This would make programming simpler. I've not tried this myself, but this is an option I'm exploring as well. Later

" # Now how many square meters of LabView code # would you need to do this? " Hey that's what those funny little CIN things are for - them and their cousins. Other than that I like to see the bigger picture rather than deciphering some crypric shorthand

Hmm well, Just about all the programming I do. Recently used LV RT and FPGA on the CompactRIO platform to implement a machine conditioning system. Don't ask me about the analysis, I leave that to those who like math Other than that, numerous smaller test and measurement applications for various companies. Currently I'm trying to complete a control application for a life sciences company using LV RT and CompactFieldPoint. Later

Howzit all. Hope I can make meaningfull contributions when possible. Later