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Creating Add-on Tool and Compiler to Custom Hardware


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Hi Everyone,

We would like to use the Labview front end language for a specific control systems application, but target it towards very specific 3rd party hardware. This is a deeply embedded system that cannot use NI hardware as the custom hardware is very ruggedized for certain environments, small in size, and low cost.

Our goal is to leverage the Labview language but build the rest ourselves, including toolkits with blocks that our customers can understand, and a code compiler that would target to our custom hardware.

Honestly, I am not very familiar with Labview myself, some of our people are. But my question is about the options available to add-on products to labview. Is it commercially (i.e. permissible by NI) and technologically possible to target labview at completely custom hardware and is it possible to build very custom apps around lab view like our own target code generator/configuration. In essence, we'd like to build a custom tool chain using Labview at the core, and target it at our own hardware.

Thanks,

Paul

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Hi Paul:

I hope you realize LAVA is not the best source for your answers. First you should talk to NI, since they own the intellectual property in question. Second, you should consult a lawyer. To my knowledge there are no lawyers actively posting on this board, so no one here is qualified to give you advice about how your plans conform to the policies and licenses of NI.

That being said, NI seems to like to control the hardware platform, and is not keen to have other people generate executable code based on LabVIEW diagrams. I'm guessing that you would find it difficult and possibly illegal to target LabVIEW at your own platform without permission and technical assistance from NI. Of course if you can do this in a way that makes money for them and doesn't cannibalize their other sales channels, they may want to team up with you.

Good luck,

Jason

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Paul,

Start by consulting the following resources on ni.com and then contact your local NI representative to get more information and discuss your specific project and ideal HW platform.

With the NI LabVIEW C Generator, you can port your algorithm designed using the LabVIEW programming environment to any processor of your choice. In addition, you can create ANSI C code from your LabVIEW VIs to be integrated with third-party toolchains. The LabVIEW Generator combines the benefits of graphical programming with the ability to download to virtually any target.

http://www.ni.com/embedded/

LabVIEW C Code Generator - http://sine.ni.com/n...g/en/nid/209015

LabVIEW for ARM - http://www.ni.com/labview/arm/

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Well... you can build an exe that does whatever you want. If that "whatever" is a compiler that generates something that happens to be executable by your hardware, I don't see how that could be a problem.

Well it's a potential problem if it violates your license agreement with NI. The current license has a term that I paraphrase as "you may not use LabVIEW scripting to create a knock-off version of LabVIEW". The OP would be sensible to discuss his intentions with NI and a lawyer.

Oh, I keep forgetting about that stuff. Stuck in the past, I am.

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Hey Christian,

Yes I've done that. The Sales Engineer didn't seem very knowledgable on anything other than the common solutions utilizing the labview hardware. Its fine hardware, but its just orders of magnitude too expensive, and too large to be packaged in our environment. He was (understandably) very discouraging of any other solutions.

Is there a particular group or product expert that I could consult?

Thanks,

Paul

Paul,

Start by consulting the following resources on ni.com and then contact your local NI representative to get more information and discuss your specific project and ideal HW platform.

http://www.ni.com/embedded/

LabVIEW C Code Generator - http://sine.ni.com/n...g/en/nid/209015

LabVIEW for ARM - http://www.ni.com/labview/arm/

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