Can I use to field point set ups with discrete i/o and ethernet to wirelessly duplicate each others i/o?

[ssilk]

I need to remotely locate discrete i/o and hopefully connect them wirelessly.  I was curious if you could for instance get 2 low end field point controls and ethernet interfaces with 16 inputs and 16 outputs.  I would like input 1 on setup "A" to turn on output 1 on setup "B".  This would be true for all inputs on setup "A", and the same would be true for the inputs on setup "B" relative to the ouputs on setup "A".  Of course I would use 2 wireless access points instead of a straight ethernet cable.  Is this possible and can I do this without buying the Labview realtime module?  I currently have Labview FDK.

[Laura F.]

Hello ssilk,

What you describe is possible. You will not have to buy LabVIEW Real-Time as long as you purchase a Fieldpoint interface that is not a controller interface.  The cFP-1804 or 1808 should work well.  However, to perform the type of measurement/control you want, you will have to have a host computer that interfaces to both of these banks at all times to read the input of one and output to the other.  If instead, you purchased one controller interface the and LabVIEW RT module, you would be able to do the same thing without the constant interaction of the host computer. 

Hope this helps,

Laura

[ssilk]

It definitely helps!  Unfortunately I need a standalone system with no PC interaction, and I would already be stretching the budget for the NI hardware, if I had to buy another industrial PC or the realtime software I would bust the budget.

[Laura F.]

Hello ssilk,

Unfortunately, to use Fieldpoint, you either need to have one controller that can run a control program itself (hence the need for LabVIEW RT) or a PC to run the program and communicate with the two fieldpoint setups.  I am not aware of any other way to do an application like you described.

Regards,

Laura