The Traditional Approach to test and measurement

In last weeks newsletter we've introduced you to Brie's problem, where she has these problems;

1. Acquire, Analyze and Present Data
2. Customize, Grow and Expand my measurement and control applications
3. Develop Code Quickly and Efficiently, deploy globally and work with other teams.

So let's try to get some of here concerns addressed first.

Traditionally, as engineers, we need to test with a lot of different equipment, more like the image below, Imagine Brie's boss told her, create a test application using the equipment shown in this image below.

what would you do? this setup is a mix of analog test equipment, digital testing, and various connectivity types.

it'll take quite a long time before you are able to create a program that will link up all of these old systems right?

Will you start from scratch or will you have a better starting point?

Engineers today have to make use of their time better, while, yes we can develop our solutions from scratch and may sound like we are really good engineers, it may not be a good use of our time.

What's a good use of time is leveraging existing technologies, that will speed up your process, and allow you to focus on developing your final solution rather than spending all of your time developing connectivity, drivers and other parts of your system that have already been developed by others before you.

yes, we already live in a world where it's so advanced we just have to leverage what's already been made, but that doesn't mean we don't have the capability to build better solutions right? In fact, we can now create bigger, better systems, well lets talk about that in a future post.

Anyway, since Brie has been tasked to create a test and measurement application, she needs to decide what to use, there are a few things she can consider

1. Use what's already present in their company, prior software they have purchased or used before she joined.
2. Use or recommend what she already knows, probably from her previous job, or from university, or
3. She can consider the following solution, but first let's watch this video.

Yes, she can consider using LabVIEW, a Graphical programming environment, that will allow her to;

1. Connect to third party hardware, using traditional connectivity protocols such as GPIB, PCI/e, USB, Lan, Ethernet, and other industry protocols,
2. Develop simpler tests and scale to more complex and more measurements later on, using Graphical Data Flow
3. Develop, Deploy and Debug code faster, and leverage existing drivers, example programs, and a training that will help Brie collaborate better
4. Advanced algorithms such as Fast Fourier Transform, Limiting Testing and PID, are included already.

So if she saw this video, she can probably contact an NI Engineer or a Partner Reseller such as Lorenz Yatco of Braemac, who she can contact via [email protected] or 09171232287.

NI has an ecosystem of Partners, Distributors and Resellers, System Integrators and Consultants, all of which can help Brie in deciding whether LabVIEW is the right software for her approach, or not.

What we do know is that most companies and engineers have leveraged a graphical programming approach to develop cross department team collaboration, hasten the time-to-market and save a lot of development time for their engineering teams.

Which we will talk about in the next newsletter. If this letter was helpful for you, please do like, comment and share it with you friends so that they can also learn, Like Brie, that there might be a better way to;

Integrate Hardware. Visualize Data and Accelerate Engineering.

talk to you soon!

-Lorenz Yatco

[email protected]

09171232287