Gather Measurements in Extreme Environments

National Instruments (NI; Austin, TX) has extended its CompactDAQ line of rugged, modular data acquisition systems with its new NI cDAQ-9188XT. An 8-slot NI CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis designed for distributed or remote measurements in extreme environments, the NI cDAQ-9188XT withstands temperatures from -40 to 70 degrees Celsius, 50 g of shock and 5 g of vibration. The NI cDAQ-9188XT has Class 1 Division 2 and Ex hazardous location certifications. Its chassis is the first in the NI CompactDAQ platform to offer an onboard watchdog timer.

The NI cDAQ-9188XT CompactDAQ data acquisition system. Image courtesy of National Instruments.

An NI CompactDAQ system is made up of a chassis, NI C Series I/O modules, and software. Chassis can connect to a host computer over USB, Ethernet, or 802.11 Wi-Fi or operate stand-alone with a built-in controller. An individual NI CompactDAQ chassis can measure up to 256 channels of electrical, physical, mechanical, or acoustic signals.

The NI CompactDAQ platform includes 10 chassis options, three buses, and more than 50 C Series modules. C Series modules provide a wide range of connectivity for electrical or sensor measurement and contain the signal converter, connectivity, and conditioning circuitry in a single package. The NI CompactDAQ integrates with NI’s LabVIEW system design software natively. It also supports the LabVIEW Electrical Power Suite, which enables NI CompactDAQ users to integrate power analysis functions such as energy, frequency, voltage unbalance, and event detection into their monitoring systems.

The 8-slot NI cDAQ-9188XT CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis can accommodate a range of modules for electrical or sensor measurement. Image courtesy of National Instruments.

The new NI cDAQ-9188XT’s chassis is the first in the NI CompactDAQ platform to offer an onboard watchdog timer with defined safe states. This, says NI, can help protect tests and equipment. Users can configure the watchdog timer for any of the output channels (analog, digital, or counter) used on the chassis. This feature is said to provide a fail-safe mechanism to adjust specified output channels to user-preconfigured voltage levels or logic states if the user does not reset the watchdog timer, or if an undesired event occurs such as the Ethernet cable becoming disconnected.

The NI cDAQ-9188XT is designed for distributed or remote measurements in extreme environments. Image courtesy of National Instruments.

The NI cDAQ-9188XT chassis ships with the NI-DAQmx driver DVD. The driver delivers users a single programming interface for programming analog input, analog output, digital I/O, and counters. It offers programming support for NI LabVIEW, ANSI C/C++, C#, and Visual Basic .NET. NI-DAQmx’s DAQ Assistant configuration tool helps with code generation for LabVIEW, NI LabWindows/CVI, and NI Measurement Studio. It also supports NI Measurement & Automation Explorer for system configuration and test.

Pricing for the 8-slot NI cDAQ-9188XT CompactDAQ Ethernet chassis begins at $1,750. For more information, visit National Instruments.

Download the NI cDAQ-9188XT specifications.

Go here for details on NI-DAQmx driver software.

Learn more about NI CompactDAQ systems.

Read about building distributed measurement systems.

Go here to learn more about C Series modules.

See why DE's editors selected NI's new NI cDAQ-9188XT 8-slot CompactDAQ system as their Pick of the Week.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.