Hardware selection conundrum: comments, ideas, criticism welcome

[MarkCG]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so let me briefly introduce myself: I'm 26 years old and live in Austin, TX, where I work for a very small start-up. My degree was in Aerospace Eng. I have been doing labview for about two years, mainly doing control, monitoring, and data logging systems for test stands, running on regular windows pcs. The time has come for me to implement a version of one of this systems in a highly reliable, field deployable form. I'm not up to the task of re-writing everything in C or C++ (I have some experience doing this for what was a small labview project, it's tough, and it takes a long time), so I took a look at what my options where:

Compact RIO or Compact Fieldpoint:

Pros: high reliability, in other words won't crash because of a programming error you didn't make (I hope). Tough hardware

Cons: Prohibitively expensive for us. Looks like $3000+ for hardware alone (need controller, analog in, digital in and out), and performance overkill for the application as loop time is 1 Hz (very slow!). Labview RT module adds to the bill...

RIO Single Board 

Pros: hardware not as expensive, $2000 or so, reliability. May make sense in future for larger systems due to high channel count (32 Analog, 100+ DIO) 

Cons: need Labview RT AND FPGA module! More money... Still performance overkill. NI wants you to sign OEM agrement ?!

Rackmount server running running windows pro + daq card

Pros: Path of least resistance, server can be had for $500.

Cons: Windows crashes. Server hardware not tough (fans break, HD crashes) / heat resistant. 

These seem to me the "officially supported" options given to me by NI. I don't really like any one of them. 

So I thought about using this: a fanless "industrial" style PC like this http://www.industria...ms/nse-2010.htm with solid state memory and Windows XP embedded. M-series PCI DAQ.

Pros: Windows embedded should crash much less often. Performance matches requirements. Cheaper: $1000 or so for PC, + $ 400 for DAQ + $200 for OS (according to company). Should require no additional software from NI except for app builder.

Cons: Windows XP embedded does not seem to be "officially" supported, although there are a few articles on running labview executables on there.

This last solution sound best to me, but I haven't been able to find a whole lot of discussions on it on the web. Maybe I didn't look hard enough... What do you think? Have you tried it? Heard of anyone trying it? 

   

[jgcode]

Cons: Windows XP embedded does not seem to be "officially" supported, although there are a few articles on running labview executables on there.

Hi Mark

I think this might have changed!

After all NI sells Touch Panel Controllers with XPe on it (albeit re badged) - we use them for our applications

I did inquire a while ago about running DSC from XPe which wasn't offically supported either but should have worked.

However I just found this: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/5956

What National Instruments Products are supported on XP Embedded?

Starting with LabVIEW 2009, LabVIEW Datalogging and Supervisory Control Module (DSC) is supported on XPe allowing you develop and deploy HMI/ SCADA applications to touch panels based on Windows XP Embedded. You can also develop basic HMI applications with LabVIEW Touch Panel Module which is also supported on XP Embedded. The industry-leading NI-DAQmx drivers are compatible with the Windows XP development system allowing you to build applications with Nis high speed data acquisition hardware.

Summary

Windows XP Embedded is an ideal OS for applications that require higher reliability and small footprint while maintaining the power of full Windows XP version.

I am glad I went looking for this and found this out!

[crelf]

I'm new to this forum so let me briefly introduce myself: I'm 26 years old and live in Austin, TX, where I work for a very small start-up.

You need to talk to your local NI rep and get yourself talking to the right ppl at NI HQ on MOPAC - they'll be able to talk you through the pros and cons of not only the hardware, but how it applies to your specific application.

[MarkCG]

Alrighty, well after after getting approximately nowhere with the NI support on this topic, I've decided that I'm going to try running it on XP embedded anyways. It sounds like people have done it before and NI HAS released a version of the runtime engine for WinXPe. So there probably is a way. I really don't want to buy the DSC module though... I'd be paying for so much functionality I just don't need.  If that doesn't work I may try linux, though that may end up being an even bigger headache....   . Thanks for the advice y'all. 

[Gary Rubin]

We're running standard LV8.6 EXEs on Windows Embedded Standard on compact flash drives. I didn't do the install, but I think that we followed some of NI's directions with little trouble.

[Neville D]

I didn't see you list an option using std PC hardware and LabVIEW-RT. Its pretty stable, doesn't crash, but will cost you about $500 per deployment runtime license.

Neville.