Additional NI Software Idea Exchange

I'm using Veristand for eVTOL TestCell application.

I would like to have XY graph UI component on screen like which Flexlogger have.

Often times, the values of numeric indicators are changing rapidly and it is necessary to create Calculated Channels with Averaging [Smoothing] functions to make it easier for the operator to interpret the data.  When you need to do this for dozens of channels, this is very time consuming for the end user and requires unnecessary resources of the RT controller in performing these calculations.

With charts, it is possible to edit the Streaming Rate, but with Numeric Indicators this is not possible.  

Request:

• Add an option in the Configuration Pane, for the numeric indicator selected, to Average the channel value by xx points (n)

Request for evaluation by a user group and update of VeriStand System Explorer user interface.  The System Explorer user interface has changed little in several years - small improvements, such as allowing the user to enter formulas using the PC keyboard rather than the interface within the Calculated Channel Configuration Page would be significant.  As an example, the INERTIA Calculation Custom Device is more user friendly and intuitive.  

Additionally, the ability to better organize Calculated Channels, Alarms, Aliases, User Channels, etc. after creation would be helpful.  For large projects, where we have dozens of variables and calculated channels, it is a significant amount of work to organize after the variables or calculated channels are created.  Creating folders beforehand to help organize is a workaround, but after the fact, using the Cut and Paste functions are clunky - the ability to drag and drop would be preferred.

Would like XNET session to filter source addresses at the session level based on source address(es) specified in the dbc file.  Currently only way to filter is apparently to specify each individual frame to be filtered.  See screenshots of sample dbc and code required to filter multiple frames below.

Hello,

For custom FPGA personnality, it is possible to use PWM scaling: in the system definition, you can define the PWM period (in Ticks), and then at execution, you can play with the ratio (channel value in %): 

PWM Out Configuration in System Explorer

I guess the "native" FPGA scaling inludes the conversion between pulse ration specificed by the channel and the period in ticks to get the high and low time used in the FPGA (_High Pulse x and _Low Pulse x in FPGA example project) :

DMA Read operation and High/Low Pulse split in FPGA example

PWM out loop in FPGA example

I am facing for the third time (at least) a customer need to adjust this PWM out frequency at run time. I already adress this need by exposing high and low time in a Custom FPGA Personality. But that's not really convenient (I used to build a display template to get an easy way to configure the whole PWM generation - I'm not sure I even wan't to know if and how is possible with UI Manager).

My proposal : expose PWM period or frequency as an additional (and optional) channel, in order to allow the change of its value at run-time. The FPGA "interface" in VeriStandStand could take in charge the computation of high/low time according to this new channel value. This way, existing FPGA personnality do not have to be changed (backward compatibility).

Cherry on top of the cake, you can even imagine to set up the expected PWM Loop rate and express the frequency in Hz, instead of the PWM period in Ticks (scaling, one more time).

Under the System Explorer, a right click on the PWM out channel could expose a new entry in context menu, allowing the user to Add PWM Frequency Channel (just like Add Information Channels for XNET frames)

Regards,

NI License Manager is a really good tool to check in a visual way in which products are licensed and connecting to the Server License.

However, in case you need to request access from NI License Manager to the server through the "Manage" button on the Network License tab, you need to go specifically to each machine physically or set up a remote third party tool to request the access with that button.

Therefore, it will be a great solution to create certain options for the NI License Manager and set up some Master License Managers to make these requests from a few selected computers. Adding value to the security of the server as it will not be accessed very often.

Thanks.

Currently the Find Systems VI in the system configuration toolkit is great for searching NI hardware on the network to connect to. However for large networks it would be convenient to search specific subnets and IP ranges.

IDEA Summary:  Please make a optional input terminal for the Find Systems VI that can search a specific subnet or range of IP addresses.

Request for a "Find / Replace" search function in Stimulus Profile Editor:

+ To find where a variable [parameter] is found in code

+ To bulk replace a variable [parameter], when required

The current situation w/ homebrewn installers is really ugly - see tons of forum posts.

We have decent package management technologies like APT, which industry-grade proven for over two decades, that handles all the usual aspects of software deployment - downloads, installations, dependency management, fully automatic upgrades, inventory, clean removal, etc, etc. This also includes post-installation steps like database updates, automatically building OOT kernel modules, etc. Such technology has also been ported to esoteric and very operator-unfriendly platforms like Windows.

The key point here is the Distribution: software has to be compiled and packaged for a particular distribution and target architecture, so everything (including ABIs) really fit together and the software is neatly integrated into the ecosystem.

There are two major package manager stacks: dpkg/apt and rpm/yum, each used for dozens of different distros/platforms. Once the build process is set up (est. just several man-days initially), dozens of distros can be easily supported w/ neglectable effort. With an CI, the whole build/packaging/deployment process can easily run completely automatically.

Once packages are available that way, operators just have to add the vendor's package repository once to their system and then everything - including updates - can run automatically. Operators also can easily mirror repos, eg. for offline deployment, additional QA+approval, etc.

Since 20+ years there is no need for homebrewn installers whatsoever. They're just an extreme waste of resources - on both vendor and user side.

Properly packaging directly to certain distros and using only the native package managers for deployment would make the tons of operating/deployment problems (as seen here in the forum) go away - they're basically but problems w/ the distro-incompatible homebewn installers.

--mtx

Currently, in the RT Utilities - Software palette, we find the Format.VI, but it would be useful to be able to specify which partition/drive to do it for. 

This way, even systems running in (RAM) memory (for example, by taking advantage of the PXE boot) could be formatted easily.