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I have never heard of being able to use a FPGA board with LabVIEW, that wasn't a NI FPGA hardware solution. I'm not saying you can't use a different board I've just never heard of anyone doing that. If you must use NI hardware (which I suspect is the case) the cheapest PCI model is going to run you $1500 just for the card, which is a DIO only card at 40MHz and 1M gates. http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/202011 That's not including the cables or terminal blocks. One other possible option is develop in LabVIEW, then compile to VHDL, then burning that to your generic FPGA card. I've never done this and am unsure if it can be done. I assume at some point the compiled VHDL code is available but you will probably have a difficult time properly addressing hardware IO on a different FPGA.

This is true but one work around is to set the buffer size of the channel before writing the first time. This will allow you to use the write function several times without it needing to actually write to disk, which means it will not need to write the XML header. The down side is the data is not actually written to disk, and if power is removed from the PC then your buffer is lost. For this reason I try to make my buffer size appropriate, so I'm not writing XML header data all the time, but I also don't have a buffer so large that I don't write all the data at once (unless that is desired). http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361H-01/lvhowto/setting_tdms_buffersize/

I was disappointed when I went to their talks page and the "Wat" talk was the only one there.

Yeah it was and it was even posted by the same user. It would not surprise me if our labviewsolutions was the owner of the domain.

A few things to be aware of is the application may look different because of the themeing controls and fonts that are used are different. Also be aware that with UAC in Winodows 7 you may not have the ability to write registry. Even as an administrator you need to turn UAC down to be able to write in most of the registry (user access may work I'm not sure). Not specifically XP to 7 but also be aware that with 64 bit Windows OSs have a "Program Files (x86)" folder and that hard coded paths to C:\Program Files are bad. That also reminds me that hard coded paths to "C:\Documents and Settings" are also bad and should be using system variables to user files or temp files. Assuming you avoid, or are aware of these issues it should work just fine.

I didn't think a snippet would work properly so here is a quick example of what I was thinking. It just has four buttons, exit and three for triggering events. Event 1 fires one event, Event 2 fires 2 and Event 3 fires 3 events in the predefined order. What the events actually does isn't important but in this example it shows a dialog saying what the previous event was (if there was one) and what the current event is without using any local or global variables. Queued Message Example.vi

I'm sure others will chime in on their opinions. But some of the benefits I know of are... Direct DMA streaming from channels to disk including channel scaling and settings (my understanding is this happens without CPU intervention). Small file size with combination of binary and XML data. Reading TDMS data is quite easy using the TDMS palette, and you don't need to read the whole file to get the data you need. Grab the group, and channel and display it on a graph. Data is found based on names not column or row indexes. You can concatenate TDMS files using a binary copy function (copy /b in command line) and channel data will be appended. Using properties of the File/Group/Channel helps with organization and header data. Can be opened in Excel with a free add-on. (and looks decent where things like column width and font style on import, that you don't get on open in ASCII) Can store just about any data type. http://lavag.org/top...in-a-tdms-file/ Works nativly in DIAdem for automated report generation (not much experience with this when needed I have written my own in LabVIEW) Can be opened in Matlab (not much experience with this either but I heard there are drivers) Comes with a half way decent file viewer, which can be modified to your needs. I started using TDMS files for storing development and debug data. Then I started putting the actual data for what I was doing in there. Now when a test completes I can take that TDMS file, and generate a more formal looking report from it. This way there is a nice looking report with the data we care about at the end, but we still have the TDMS file which will contain all raw data. But when it comes down to it use what works for you. TDMS maybe overkill, or you might not feel comfortable using it, and that's fine. For me it works well, but it might not be right for every system.

You are on the right track but i would suggest adding complexity to your code, in the hopes that it will make it more reusable, and easier to understand. I usually use a while loop, with a case statement in it, and then a event structure in the default case. (I believe the JKI template uses a modification of this). Another way to make this design is to open the LabVIEW template, Queue Message Handler and add an event structure to the default case. What this allows you to do is have most of your code in the cases of the case statement and not the event structure. So say you have a button that does some function, say call another sub VI for a dialog. You can have the button's change value event call three cases "Hide UI", "Show Dialog", and "Show UI". Now if you have any other functions that need to use the "Hide UI" or "Show UI" then you just need to call the cases. So for you there could be four cases "Event 1 Steps"..."Event 4 Steps". Of course I would recommend using better naming for the events. Then you can call any number of steps in any order, under any event case. I believe this to be the more right way, but one way is to do as you said, where you have a value signaling property on a control that calls an event. I feel like this is harder to follow, and harder to debug.

Keep in mind that scripting does not work in a run-time environment. Meaning it won't work on a system that has a built EXE running, it will only work in a development environment.

I don't have vision installed on this machine, but if this is the example I think it is, your problem is with the fact that the IMAQ Get LCD ROI gets the ROI of the LCD by looking for 88 on the display. You can look at the help and it will create a ROI for the LCD if the 88 (or in this case 8888) is shown on the start. That's why the example will load the 88 first, then cycle through the other images (after the ROI has been setup). Create a ROI that goes into the IMAQ Read LCD sub VI that is setup to have 4 ROI (one for each segment) and it should work.

I may be wrong but doesn't DSC also come with some kind of image library (not sure exactly what it's called) and all the neat-o xcontrols? Okay so I don't use them much but there were some pipes that have interesting bending properties.

I'd also be curious to know if someone has examples on how to essentially take over the serial port manually. I found this knowledge base that looks like it may help you but I've never done it personally. http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/1ECEFAA7AD52994986256966005356EA

There is an Array to Cluster in the Cluster palette. You must specify the size of the cluster to make (the default is 9), right click the primitive and select Cluster Size. This is not changeable at runtime as far as I know.

I appreciate the tips but why not post some code showing how to perform these operations? EDIT: Okay I do see the blog post has screenshots of LabVIEW code but no VIs posted.

I'm only just coming into this, but is this the same as NI's Ethernet/IP toolkit? http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/209676 I saw that this existed in NI Labs before it was an official product, but those files have been taken down.

While I agree NI isn't a democracy, they do have to cater to their customers and adding or removing features that the majority are asking for (mostly adding) is what keeps customers buying and using LabVIEW, which keeps customers buying hardware. I think it is in NI's best interest to add features that are asked for by the most number of users. Which is why the idea exchange seems to work well for feature requests in LabVIEW. Now that's not saying that some features haven't been added in the past which a minority has asked for (or even no one). I can think of several features of LabVIEW that must have taken alot of hours to implement which I've rarely used, and I would have preferred those hours been used on some other feature I wanted, but I'm just one customer.

Could you either post a screenshot or explain a little more. Are you saying the window doesn't fit on the screen? I'd recommend increasing the resolution of your monitor if that is the case. Alternatively you can run the installers of the products you want to install by browsing the Distributions folder on the DVD.

I can come across as harsh over text some times, glad you don't feel that way. I understand that from a Linux perspective, driver support is very important, but from Windows side drivers for just about any thing are included in the base install (which is why it has ballooned in size in the last few releases). Of course it doesn't include drivers for all hardware in existence, but installing a fresh Windows 7 on any netbook should have drivers for all hardware. I have not found the Atom to be too slow for basic browsing, games, emulators, or video play back of non HD video. I have used an Atom for 1080p video play back at native resolution but it was using hardware acceleration which for this discussion of netbooks I am ignoring that. I've also installed LabVIEW and done some (very little) programming. The resolution is what is a killer for me but performance wise it handled it fine. Of course it probably won't be able to handle a full fledged DAQ application but then neither can an iPad, neither were designed with that in mind (at least I hope not) I was unfamiliar with an ultrabook and my first quick google search brought up atom based PCs which is why I asked if there was any benefit from them. That being said they are two to four times more expensive than a netbook, and personally I don't need the extra performance for what I am using it for. Gaming on netbooks has alot more options than tablets. I personally prefer a USB game pad (something no tablet I've seen can do). Has rumble two analog sticks and a bunch of buttons, and lots of options for USB game pads. I have used the keyboard and mouse, but I can also use a wireless mouse for FPS gaming. (again no tablet i've seen does this). There are also touch friendly netbooks (which I've linked to earlier) which can have a simple interface for launching applications that are as user friendly as an iPad, where 3 year olds can touch things. Both Andorid and iOS have free texting? No extra data plan needed? Because I don't have a separate monthly bill for my netbook to have internet. Skype is not very system intensive and has desktop notifications. I'm not sure if it is free but google talk has free texting and that can just run in a web browser. I think they have a stand alone application with desktop notifications too but never used it. I used the word "better" because you did in your original post. I would not consider a netbook rugged, but I would not consider a tablet (any I've used) rugged either. As for why I prefer a netbook? I believe I've already mentioned the fact that a netbook gives me many more features than tablet and most the time I've found cheaper netbooks than tablets. I know there are sales and such but the ipad starts at $500, netbooks start at $200. I have other things to spend $300 on, I'll just buy a netbooks which I can upgrade and use extra peripherals, and install any application I want, or write any application I want, with any language I want, etc.

I do not agree with several things you have said. I do not believe the iOS to have more support for games than a PC. I would suspect that the number of games I can play or emulator and play on a Netbook likely outnumbers the number of total apps in the app store (which is over 600,000) Why is the iOS good for texting? Why can't teens text with GoogleTalk? Or Skype? Or a web browser? I would say that a PC would have more accessibility with communication through voice, video, images, and text than a iOS device. What makes a tablet with bluetooth a better option than a netbook? A tablet will still cost more and have less features than a netbook won't it? What makes an Ultra book a better option? Does it not have less features and cost more than a netbook? In closing don't take this as a personal attack I am just trying to counter point an argument for any iOS device on the merit that it has more functionality than a PC.

LabVIEW 10? Well there's your problem. LabVIEW does well every other release it seems. 7.0 - Not Good 7.1 - Great. 8.0 - Not good, 8.2 - Decent, 8.5 - Kinda Okay, 8.6 - Great, 2009 - Also Great (combo breaker), 2010 - Not so Good, 2011 - Good Again. But on a serious note I would try to build in debug into the EXE. This makes the EXE much larger but you can run the EXE while performing basic probing on it like it was source. I remember one time I had an EXE that has similar issues, I think it reported that it was broken as an EXE so I added debug to it and then it was no longer broken. It made the EXE larger but we didn't care at the time and was happy to see it working.

You want flash and separate user accounts? Windows does that. What's wrong with a netbook? Wife got one new for $250. It was fine as is but I put a 9-Cell battery and a 64GB SSD in it. Now it gets over 9 hour running Windows 7. If you want a touch screen they have netbook tablets, refurbished $400, http://pcdirect.com/deinduo10con1.html new $500 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200288 comes with 320GB of space. Holds alot more music and movies than any tablet does. You can also plug in SD cards or USB drives, use USB printers, USB TV tuners, USB CD/DVD drives, USB keyboards and mice, external monitors, join domains, comes with 802.11n, and have a full physical qwerty keyboard. I don't want to add more options to your list but I personally don't see a need for any tablet. I understand they are cool, but if you are looking for a large feature set for the price, tablets don't seem like a good choice.

Did anyone else find the 4 second video less than satisfying?

Pretty sure you could have abbreviated that and it still would have been funny.

Just wanted to chime in and put a vote in for non-icons. Again I've never known anyone to prefer them. I don't use express VIs often, but when I do I always change them to the icon view and remove the caption. Probably to save on block diagram space.

...wow well that site is interesting. FYI it seems that the NI forum has found it as well. http://forums.ni.com...p/310730/page/6 For those of you that are interested the site appears to take a VI and overwrite the password with a known one, and then recalculate two hashes needed. It seems to me the person that owns that site must have some inside information from NI about the file structure. Not necessarily in how to parse the blocks of data (I can see that) but I'm not sure I would have been able to determine the two hashes that need to get recalculated when the password is changed.