Collecting data from legacy serial and Ethernet devices

[randyest]

I'm planning an interesting project that requires data collection from up to 16 legacy devices (simultaneously) via serial (RS-232) and Ethernet links (each using proprietary protocols.) The total bandwidth is quite low (well under 1Mb/s) and the system need only process the data once every 10 seconds or so, so processor performance needs are also low. The system will display a message based on the data collected and provide for simple input via touchscreen LCD.

Since performance is not a major concern and minimal development time is the main goal, I'm leaning toward using LabView for development, prototyping on a PC, and eventually moving to an ADI BlackFin-based embedded system (or similar) for production. LabView's ability to target multiple platforms (FPGA, embedded CPU, PC, etc.) is a nice bonus, and development/IDE cost is not a concern.  My main focus is getting a prototype up and running asap, then moving to relatively low-cost (~$1k or less) production system asap.

Based on my research there are numerous potential solutions for this application and it's non-trivial to compare all the options without trying each. I'm wondering what platforms and development environments you would recommended to minimize development time and simplify implementation of this system for someone with more hardware design experience than embedded system programming experience.  Am I perhaps overestimating LabView's potiential as a solution for this application?  What would you suggest I evaluate as potential hardware and software solutions for this system?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions or recommendations.

[Daniel_E]

Randyest,

From your message, I assume you have never tried LabVIEW before.  One of the best ways to quickly understand the power of LabVIEW is to check it out for yourself.  You can evaluate the software by downloading it from here.

https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/software-products/download.labview.html

There is a lot of free training at this link so that you can quickly know what you are doing.

https://learn.ni.com/learn/article/labview-tutorial

I cannot tell you how easy LabVIEW makes programming embedded controllers like the Blackfin.  I have programmed them with both C and LabVIEW.  LabVIEW is the winner to me because it is visual.  This gets rid of syntax issues, which was a huge issue for me.  Here is a link called "Getting Started with the NI LabVIEW Embedded Module for ADI Blackfin Processors 2.0" that talks more about this.

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/371656b/resource/371656b.pdf

LabVIEW also does FPGA very well.  If you have ever tried to write VHDL code for an FPGA you will be amazed at the simplicity of the LabVIEW approach.  It takes a very high level programming approach to simplify use, but maintains all the low level functionality (including the ability to program in HDL code). 

Also, even though I know you said performance isn't an issue, I have found LabVIEW to be extremely capable.  It does a very good job of keeping up, especially if you take advantage of good programming techniques like producer consumer, parallelism, etc.

And to your main focus, LabVIEW, to me, is the fastest way to develop an application.  I have had people who love their text-based programming languages tell me that LabVIEW is much better at getting "up and running".

I hope all this helps!  Let me know if you want more information on all this!

Also, posting the more specific things that you want to do on the relating forum groups (LabVIEW, Embedded, FPGA sections) may get more responses!

Dan