The NI Product Portfolio and why we use it
Introduction
National Instruments (NI) / Emerson – Virtual Instrumentation Pioneers
National Instruments (NI) was founded in 1976 as a startup and is now a global industry leader employing approximately 7,500 employees in nearly 50 countries and serving over 35,000 customers annually. Its mission is “to equip engineers and scientists with tools that accelerate productivity, innovation, and discovery”. With a vast network of support and services as well as over 800 partners worldwide, NI serves individual engineers, large organisations, integrators, OEMs, and more. Recently, NI has become part of Emerson’s Test and Measurement group.
National Instruments has pioneered virtual instrumentation in a software-based approach to instrumentation, evolving the development of a platform that tightly integrates hardware and software to simplify data collection, measurement, and testing. While it produces products in countless industries, much of National Instruments’ core products and services stem off a single market: the Test & Measurement market.
Why Wired-in chooses to work with NI
Wired-in Software is a National Instruments (NI) Systems Integrator Partner based in Melbourne, Australia. We work with our clients to provide them with a multitude of benefits that stem from access to the NI product portfolio:
- NI’s wide range of industry-leading software products are tightly integrated with its hardware portfolio. They are highly customisable which allows us to tailor the systems we develop to our clients specific needs. NI software is also an open architecture that easily integrates with third-party hardware and software which provides our clients with the flexibility to incorporate existing equipment into their NI-based systems. The overall result of all these benefits is a rich and powerful suite of system solutions to benefit our clients.
- NI’s high-quality, reliable, and robust hardware products are based on test and measurement technologies and have been developed to solve the most demanding challenges. They are designed with scalability and modularity in mind and are easily adapted to our clients requirements should they change.
- NI is continually investing in research and development to bring innovative products and solutions to the market. Their focus on emerging technologies ensures that users have access to cutting-edge tools that keep them ahead of the competition.
- NI has a network of over 800 Alliance Partners globally who are dedicated to understanding their client’s challenges and developing integrated solutions for them.
- NI offers its customers outstanding global technical support.
- NI now benefits from being part of Emerson’s Test and Measurement group.
NI Hardware
NI produces hundreds of high-quality and robust modules and chassis for a wide range of test and measurement applications across various market segments. Wired-in Software sell NI hardware as part of our custom test and measurement solutions. The main hardware platforms include:
PXI
The PXI platform provides customers with rugged, high performing systems designed for measurement and automation. PXI builds on the standard PCI electrical-bus features, and integrates the modular, Eurocard packaging of CompactPCI, specialised synchronisation buses and expanded software features. While more expensive than other NI products, PXI provides customers with a high performance and compact deployment platform in spaces such as manufacturing and industrial test compared to similar specialised systems that can cost magnitudes more.
NI have a broad range of PXI modules, controllers and chassis. Furthermore, the range can be extended with PXI components from other vendors providing more options to deliver a complete solution.
All NI software drivers for PXI are freely available for LabVIEW and TestStand, accelerating the test system development process.
Wired-in Software have built PXI systems into our solutions for clients that include:
- An End-Of-Line (EOL) test system for a robotic aerial surveillance product.
- An EOL test system for a fleet vehicle telematics product.
- An EOL test system for a photovoltaic inverter.
To learn more about how we solve our client’s test challenges, read more on our Turnkey Test Systems page.
CompactRIO Platform
The NI CompactRIO (cRIO) platform is suited to industrial real-time embedded control systems. The cRIO has a chassis with a real-time processor for communication and signal processing, and a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) that allows users to maintain high-speed control and implement custom timing and triggering directly to the hardware it interfaces with. The cRIO is designed for reliability, with a built-in watchdog and uses a real-time operating system.
There are several chassis and controller options available (ie. 4 slot, 8 slot). Depending on the I/O requirements, each slot can house a different C-series module to interface with external devices to provide a broad range of DAQ capability, such as sensors, displays, cameras and motors. cRIOs can also be daisy chained to increase channel count. A key advantage of cRIO is it allows system developers to remove the need for complex custom electronic design.
Software is developed using LabVIEW RT and LabVIEW FPGA, allowing LabVIEW developers to extend their programming skill to an embedded platform.
Wired-in Software have used the cRIO controllers for various client systems that require very fast data processing and strict timing control including:
- A seismic activity conditioning monitoring system for a multi-story building.
- A wind-tunnel control system.
- A rail system integrity analysis system.
- A high speed laser engraving control system.
To learn more about how we apply the NI cRIO and LabVIEW, read more on our LabVIEW Development page.
CompactDAQ Platform
The CompactDAQ (cDAQ) platform provides customers with a portable, rugged system that integrates connectivity and signal conditioning for data IO modules, allowing users to easily collect, process, and analyse sensor or signal data in combination with LabVIEW.
The cDAQ platform comes in the form of a chassis containing a timing controller that synchronises data acquisition from several C Series IO modules between a connected computer. cDAQ connectivity options include USB, Ethernet, and wireless. Most of the C-series modules available for the cRIO can also be used on the cDAQ.
The cDAQ is suited to PC-based measurement systems. For control/embedded applications we recommend a cRIO (see above).
Wired-in Software have developed cDAQ-based systems for implementations that don’t require the strict and very fast timing constraints that would require a cRIO unit, and are controlled by a separate computer running a Windows operating system, including:
- Gas turbine data acquisition system.
- A valve pressure testing system.
- A hardware-in-the-loop telematics product test system.
Other platforms
NI Software
NI’s software has always been developed to work seamlessly with NI’s hardware platform. Laboratory Virtual Instrument Workbench (LabVIEW) was developed to streamline the configuration and taking of measurements and controlling test apparatus. LabVIEW was initially released in 1986. All software that National Instruments offers is unified and highly interoperable, consisting of development environments and application software and includes an extensive set of drivers for interfacing with I/O, and add-ons for specialised deployment platforms.
At Wired-in, we use LabVIEW (and DQMH) because it provides us with an integrated development environment that streamlines the development, debugging, and deployment of custom engineering systems. LabVIEW has a wide range of deployment platforms and software add-ons, such as the Vision Development and Real-Time and FPGA modules that provide us with industry-specific libraries. We also use application software, such as TestStand and SystemLink to simplify and enhance challenging test and measurement problems.
The G Web Development software is a new addition to the NI Software family, allowing developers to use the power of graphical programming to create interactive web pages that can be hosted on NI Web Server.
Wired-in Software have used LabVIEW and DQMH to build a large collection of applications, including:
- Batch Sample pH and EC Measurement instrument
- Microfluidics Droplet Generator
- Building products fire testing
To learn more about Wired-in Software’s LabVIEW Development capability, read our LabVIEW Development page.
Technical Support
NI has hundreds of application engineers available globally that can provide us and our clients with support for product selection and software solutions. NI also provides access to software updates, license management, and online training.
“Getting immediate support for our client’s applications is critical to ensuring issues are resolved promptly. The team at Braemac (NI ANZ Distributor) are incredibly helpful in getting the issues started, and they can tap into the large NI technical support infrastructure to speed things along.” – Chris, Managing Director, Wired-in Software.
How To Start
If you’d love to know more about what how NI products can help you, we’d be happy to jump on a call. Schedule a meeting below, or hit the contact us button to send us a message.