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labVIEW support

tthayertthayer
edited November 2019 in PLCnext Technology & PLCnext Controls

Several customers who are evaluating PLCNext for MathLab Simulink support have asked if PLCNext can or eventually will support LabVIEW, which is also in the NI family of companies.  Any comments on this?

 

Best Regards,

 

Ted Thayer

Comments

  • Martin [PLCnext Technology Team]Martin [PLCnext Technology Team]

    Hi Ted, that’s an interesting question that I have been asked before. I haven’t heard about LabView support being on the roadmap for PLCnext Control, so I wouldn’t expect to see anything in this area in the near future.

    Out of interest, what would LabView support look like on a PLCnext Control, for these customers? I understand that LabView creates applications that run on NI hardware, so would it involve a complete port of the LabView “runtime” to PLCnext Control hardware? Or would it be similar to our support for Matlab Simulink, where we use public SImulink APIs to build binaries that run on the PLCnext runtime, from the Simulink models?

    In either case, do you have any examples of LabView running on non-NI hardware, that would give us an idea of what these customers are expecting?

    - Martin.

  • tthayertthayer

    Hi Martin,

     

    I was thinking the same approach as used with Matlab and Simulink.  Coming from the automation side of the business, the NI products were not at all part of my world, so I am not all that familiar with them, only starting to become acquainted because of the power/flexibility of PLCNext.  So I was not sure how feasible the question is.

    As far as using non-NI products to run labView, I found a few applications or comments

    https://www.labviewmakerhub.com/doku.php?id=libraries:linx:start

    http://www.ni.com/tutorial/2733/en/

    http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/8239/en/

     

  • Martin [PLCnext Technology Team]Martin [PLCnext Technology Team]

    Hi Ted,

    I have looked  at the LINX project in the past, and that (along with the other examples you give) seem to have been developed by NI themselves for specific hardware platforms. I do not see any open-source software that could be ported to the PLCnext Control architecture. So if something similar was to be developed for PLCnext Control, this would probably have to be done by NI themselves.

    If something similar to the Matlab Simulink feature was to be developed, LabView would need to provide a public API that can be used to convert a LabView program into something that could run, or be compiled to run, on any platform. This is what Matlab Simulink provides, but as far as I can tell LabView does not provide anything like this. Until they do, I cannot see how it will be possible to run LabView programs on a PLCnext Control.

    Martin.

  • martin_hmartin_h
    Hello
    I do make LabVIEW programms since years.
    Usualy the idea behind a LabVIEW driver for a third party device (in the eyes of NI/LabVIEW) is not to run the LabVIEW Source code directly on the device.
    However when that works it is gold standard ;-)

    The Idea is to have some kind of interface, API, protocoll whatever to talk from LabVIEW with the device. Or read/write directly to the I/O channelsor variables.
    So when someone asks for LabVIEW support for a device, he is happy with some kind of API or even a LabVIEW Programm/driver that him talk to the devce.
    The LabVIEW Code will then usually run on a Windows Computer or on a LabVIEW Realtime target.
    (That is depending on the api)

    A common way to talk from LabVIEW to "any" PLC can be found here:
    Connect LabVIEW to Any PLC Using OPC
    https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000x0MPCAY&l=de-CH

    Another Example:
    Connect LabVIEW to Any PLC With Modbus
    https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000x0QgCAI&l=de-CH

    I will soon get my own PLCnext Starterkit and will tell you if one or both ways above work for communication.

    Martin
  • Oliver PLCnext TeamOliver PLCnext Team
    Hello Martin,
    good point we always thought of running the LabView Code directly on Device.
    OPC DA is not supported by PLCnext Controlls
    OPC UA DA is supported an OPC UA Server is integrated by default.
    There are multiple libraries that enable endusers to setup Modbus Clients or Modbus Servers so that option exists as well.
    You can find them in the www.plcnextstore.com.
    Thanks for your thoughts.

    kind regards,
    Oliver
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