Mesuring machine cycle time

[Ben1183]

I want to measure the cycle time of 10 plastic molding machines and view the results along with cycle counters on HMI on a PC.

I can produce a 0v-5v pulse from the machine at the start of every cyle.

What Hardware is most applicable for this application.

Thanks. 

[KateB]

How long is the time between cycle and how far apart of each machine? If it's short cycle (within 1 sec), counter card should be used. Longer than that, normal DIO should be fine. If the machine is far apart, signal will be noisy and difficult to measure. You may need to consider using distributed platform like CompactRIO instead of PCI or USB card.