What to do with Unsupported Hardware?

[gleichman]

I've been re-purposing some older test systems only to find out that the NI's drivers no longer support some of the boards. I guess there are advantages to stand alone instruments. So, I thought about making my own stand alone instruments. I found this mini-itx board with a single PCI slot. The board has serial and network adapters that I could use as my interface. The NI board is a PCI-4060 DMM. Anybody try something like this?

[hooovahh]

This will work just fine as a stand alone DMM, if you don't mind the extra cost of a motherboard, Processor, Hard Drive, RAM, Power Supply, case, and software.

 

Depending on how slick you want it to look I would recommend a PCI riser of some kind.  some thing that gives a flexible ribbon cable, or possibly just a 90 degree bend, so the DMM sits parallel to the motherboard to save space.  Then you'll probably need a custom case to house it.

 

I've never used any of these cases but here are a few that might work

 

http://www.circotech.com/istar-s-21-mini-itx-box-computer-case.html?gclid=CPq7jqur17gCFUXNOgodTDYAPw

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Morex-2766-Mini-ITX-case-w-Dual-PCI-Bays-60W-PS-/130747941410#vi-content

 

If it were PCI-Express you could fit it in the a very tiny case, and thin motherboard, and external power, using something like this.

 

http://www.mini-box.com/I-O-shield-and-riser-card-for-DN2800MT

 

EDIT:  I changed my mind this would look awesome with the LCD read out if you can control it.

 

http://www.mini-box.com/M300-LCD-Enclosure

Edited July 30, 2013 by hooovahh

[gleichman]

The motherboard that I was looking at comes with a CPU. I have memory, PSU, and hard drives from old systems. I found a mini-itx case that will allow a PCI card without the riser board. It's cheap, but a little larger than ideal.

 

http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7838765&sku=C283-ELITE120A

 

The total cost for the project (not including my time) is about $130.

Edited July 30, 2013 by gleichman

[hooovahh]

It's cheap, but a little larger than ideal.

Wow a little large?  I was thinking this could be a bench top DMM and the case I had with LCD was even a little large for that at 9.5'' x 8'' x 3''.  Your box is 17 x 12 x 10 (I assume inches).  Still re purposing hardware in this way to make a dedicated machine is a neat idea.  Oh and it might look cool if you add front banana jacks for connecting to the DMM.