NI Announces More Than 100 C Series Modules

National Instruments today announced the availability of more than 100 C Series plug-in modules from National Instruments and third-party companies. With more than 50 modules from NI, 50 third-party modules and a multitude of chassis available, there are numerous configuration options to address a wide variety of measurement and embedded control needs. Engineers and scientists can insert NI C Series modules into any of the C Series family of chassis including NI CompactDAQ, NI CompactRIO and the NI R Series expansion chassis to create a variety of mixed measurement systems. Additionally, they can use the third-party modules in any of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based chassis, including all NI CompactRIO and R Series expansion chassis.

“Reaching 100 C Series modules is a big milestone and a powerful testament to the popularity and flexibility of the C Series platform,” said John Hanks, vice president of industrial and embedded product lines at National Instruments. “With the NI and third-party modules, customers are building sophisticated systems in record time compared to traditional methods.”

NI CompactRIO features the NI reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture, which is composed of a real-time processor, an FPGA and integrated I/O connectivity. Using this standard architecture, engineers and scientists can rapidly design and prototype advanced control and embedded devices on hardware such as CompactRIO and quickly deploy their systems on the lower-cost CompactRIO integrated systems or NI Single-Board RIO hardware to reduce development costs. In addition to CompactRIO, engineers and scientists can use NI and third-party C Series modules with the NI 9144 EtherCAT slave chassis for high-performance deterministic distributed I/O over EtherCAT. Integrators and third-party resellers also can design their own custom C Series modules for CompactRIO and add-on boards for NI Single-Board RIO with the NI cRIO-9951 Module Development Kit (MDK).

NI CompactDAQ USB chassis provides the plug-and-play simplicity of USB to sensor and electrical measurements on the benchtop, in the field and on the production line. By combining more than 50 NI C Series modules with NI signal streaming technology, the NI CompactDAQ platform delivers high-speed data and ease of use in a flexible, mixed-measurement system. The NI CompactDAQ chassis connects to any device or computer running a full Windows OS and can hold up to eight NI C Series modules.

Engineers and scientists can use all C Series modules with NI LabVIEW software, a graphical programming environment that uses intuitive graphical icons and wires that resemble a flowchart to develop sophisticated measurement, test and control systems. NI LabVIEW offers integration with thousands of hardware devices, provides hundreds of built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization and is scalable across multiple targets and OSs.