Hi All,

I've created a new semi-monthly technology blog with articles for Test and Measurement engineers. Blogging has increased dramatically over the last couple of years, and subsequently, the number of blogs started with good intentions and then left to die has also risen. That's one reason why this isn't intended to be a blog per se, but more a collection of my technology articles - aimed squarely at the engineer or scientist in the Test and Measurement industry.

Some of these articles have been published before, others are collections of smaller articles, but all strive to introduce an engineering concept and give enough information to stimulate interest and thought in a particular area, or expose an emerging technology to the Test and Measurement industry at large. Hopefully, everyone will be able to get something from my technology articles, from an introduction to a new technology, confirmation of existing concepts, or just a good read to find out what's going on in Test and Measurement.

You're more than welcome to subscribe to the articles if you're looking for a semi-monthly engineering information injection. To read the articles, subscribe using your RSS reader here:

http://forums.lavag.org/blog/crelfs_technology_articles/index.php?req=syndicate

If you don't have an RSS reader check out RSS Popper for Microsoft Outlook:

http://www.rsspopper.com/

If you want more information on what RSS is, check out this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

cheers,
crelf

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About the Author
crelf is Christopher G. Relf. An enthusiastic LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architect, Relf is the Test Software and Integration Group Manager at VI Engineering, Inc. A keen software and hardware automation engineer, Christopher is a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Architect and the author of "Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW" (CRC Press). Christopher's other industrial experience includes stints as the Development Manager for Neo Vista System Integrators, an Automation Software Engineer at JDS Uniphase, an Automation Scientist at the Division of Telecommunications and Industrial Physics of the CSIRO, and as a freelance technical journalist for Australian Consolidated Press.

Hi Crelf,

great idea. Congratulations.

cheers,

Jose.

Excellent Idea, I'm looking forward to reading these articles as they become available. Just set up my RSS reader to retrieve them for me.

Thanks for your contributions Crelf.

Dave Graybeal

You can also read crelfs blog from this link without subscribing to the RSS feed....

http://forums.lavag.org/blog/crelfs_technology_articles/

Thanks for the encouraging words folks - I'm hoping to have a new article up every 3-4 weeks or so



You can indeed, but since the articles are part of a blog, you won't get notified when new articles are posted.

For those without the RSS feed, there's a new entry in crelf's Technology Articles:

Data Validity - Are Your Numbers Legit?
Whilst the emergence of data acquisition technology has substantially changed the way we do business, often overall system designs invalidate the calibration and data paths at lower levels. This month we look at the process of getting valid data right up the measurement chain - from sensor to disk. Read more...

cheers,
crelf

Get an RSS Feed to crelf's technology Articles.

About the Author
crelf is Christopher G. Relf. An enthusiastic LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architect, Relf is the Test Software and Integration Group Manager at VI Engineering, Inc. A keen software and hardware automation engineer, Christopher is a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Architect and the author of "Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW" (CRC Press). Christopher's other industrial experience includes stints as the Development Manager for Neo Vista System Integrators, an Automation Software Engineer at JDS Uniphase, an Automation Scientist at the Division of Telecommunications and Industrial Physics of the CSIRO, and as a freelance technical journalist for Australian Consolidated Press.

For those without the RSS feed, there's a new entry in crelf's Technology Articles:

PACs versus PLCs – What are the Real Differences?
There's been a lot of excitement over the last decade regarding the death of the PLC, and the emergence of its replacement: the PAC. Is it really worthwhile making the switch? This month we debunk the myths and see how they stack up – head to head. Read more...

cheers,
crelf

Get an RSS Feed to crelf's technology Articles.

About the Author
crelf is Christopher G. Relf. An enthusiastic LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architect, Relf is the Test Software and Integration Group Manager at VI Engineering, Inc. A keen software and hardware automation engineer, Christopher is a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Architect and the author of "Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW" (CRC Press). Christopher's other industrial experience includes stints as the Development Manager for Neo Vista System Integrators, an Automation Software Engineer at JDS Uniphase, an Automation Scientist at the Division of Telecommunications and Industrial Physics of the CSIRO, and as a freelance technical journalist for Australian Consolidated Press.

For some reason I couldn't see a way to post a comment, which is weird, because I remember some of the older blogs having comments.
Anyway, obviously using LabVIEW to program a PAC is much more fun than programming a PLC, but as you said that is not always feasible. Some of our systems run on FP and cFP, but in recent years we usually take the middle path you mentioned of using the PC to do all the logic. This allows us to write LabVIEW code without having to buy an expensive cFP (sometimes the customers already have old PLCs and they don't want to buy new ones and sometimes even the 180x is considered too expensive).
As for the PC being stable, running a clean computer with XP (clean means no junk installed, automatic updates turned off, no internet connection, etc.) has proved to provide the stability we need, but I wouldn't trust it to critical or RT systems. In the systems we control, the worst that could happen if the system would respond too late or get stuck (which doesn't really happen, but theoretically could) is that someone will have to work for a few minutes to clean up whatever went wrong.
We usually use low-heat, ruggedized touch panel PCs to do the control and the UI. Having the program logic on the same machine as the UI makes it much easier to properly simulate the environment beforehand and to debug and fix in the field, if needed.

It's a setting that Chris probably forgot to turn on. I suggest reposting your comment there after it's enabled.

Indeed - thanks for the reminder. You should be able to leave comments now.

For those without the RSS feed, there's a new entry in crelf's Technology Articles:

Deterministic Data Acquisition and Control with Real-Time - Part 2

Building on last month's introduction to RT, let's explore how systems retain determinism and what can derail it, including the process of task scheduling, multitasking and the pitfalls of including asynchronous components into a real time system. Read more...

cheers,
crelf

Discuss this and other crelf's Technology Articles.
Get an RSS Feed to crelf's technology Articles.

About the Author
crelf is Christopher G. Relf. An enthusiastic LabVIEW Advanced Virtual Architect, Relf is the Test Software and Integration Group Manager at VI Engineering, Inc. A keen software and hardware automation engineer, Christopher is a National Instruments Certified LabVIEW Architect and the author of "Image Acquisition and Processing with LabVIEW" (CRC Press). Christopher's other industrial experience includes stints as the Development Manager for Neo Vista System Integrators, an Automation Software Engineer at JDS Uniphase, an Automation Scientist at the Division of Telecommunications and Industrial Physics of the CSIRO, and as a freelance technical journalist for Australian Consolidated Press.

Hi Chris,

I tried to subscribe to your RSS feed with Thunderbird 2.0. For some reason Thunderbird gives an error message that the feed is not a valid feed and doesn't subscribe to it. Could you please fix it. Feedburner may be the solution...

Tomi