New Version of CompactRIO Module Development Kit from NI Simplifies Custom Module Design

“The CompactRIO Module Development Kit allows us to create complementary modules to serve our customers and build our business,” said Wolfram Koerver, Program Manager for CompactRIO modules at S.E.A. Datentechnik GmbH, a company that provides advanced products and solutions in the field of industrial automation and measuring technology. “The new MDK improves this process and enables us to implement our technology ideas even faster in new products and custom specific solutions.”

CompactRIO and NI Single-Board RIO devices, which are part of the NI FPGA-based deployment platform, feature the NI RIO architecture composed of a real-time processor, a field-programmable gate array (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 to reduce development costs. Because engineers and scientists can program all NI RIO technology platforms with LabVIEW, no recoding is needed when transitioning from CompactRIO prototypes to volume deployment with NI Single-Board RIO, which increases system reliability and shortens design development time.

In addition to LabVIEW, engineers and scientists can design custom C Series modules or NI Single-Board RIO breakout boards using NI Multisim and Ultiboard software. NI provides free Multisim design resource templates for schematic capture and SPICE simulation and integrated layout drawings using Ultiboard. The ease of use of Multisim and flexibility of Ultiboard deliver an additional cost-effective solution for designing custom hardware for NI RIO platforms.

The cRIO-9951 MDK also includes a technical design user manual, access to NI technical support during initial module development and connectors from NI cRIO-9952, cRIO-9954 and cRIO-9955 module shells. Readers can visit www.ni.com/compactrio to view example programs and find additional tutorials on developing custom modules for CompactRIO.