Lifetime of PCI 5102

[becktho]

Hi

Is there anybody out there what the average lifetime of an NI PCI 5102 high speed digitizer is?

Thank you in advance

Thomas

[Jochen]

Are you looking for the MTBF value or for the lifespan of the product line?

Best regards,

Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany

[becktho]

Hi Jochen

I'm not sure what you mean with "MTBF", but in general I need to know the lifespan of the card.

We use it in several testrigs and recently had one card that did not work properly anymore (usage time approximately 2.5 years or 300'000 - 400'000 measurements).

So we are wondering if this matches the lifespan or not. It would also be interesting if there are other cards with a bigger lifspan.

Thanks in advance

Thomas

[Jochen]

MTBF is Mean Time Between Failure and that's the only lifespan value that we can provide.
For the 5102 we have calculated MTBF for 55 °C and 25 °C. Here are the data:

55°C

Hours		161008
Method Used		Bellcore Issue 6
Temperature °C		55 °C
Temperature °F		131,00 °F

25°C

Hours		597550
Method Used		Bellcore Issue 6
Temperature °C		25 °C
Temperature °F		77,00 °F

MTBF is widely used in the industry but there are discussions going on if these values are really meaningful but currently there doesn't seem to be a better method to predict the lifespan of a product. Here is a good German article about MTBF.

As you can see lifetime prediction is a complex topic. The 5102 has been around for a while already and from my personl impression it's a very reliable product. 2.5 years lifespan doesn't sound very long but it always depends on parameters like cooling, individual device quality and so on. At least I can tell you that we haven't experienced an extraordinary rate of failure with this type of product so far.

Jochen

Message Edited by Jochen on 10-23-2006 02:56 PM

[becktho]

Hi Jochen

Thanks for this information.

We sent the card back to NI - maybe we will get some information on what could have caused the defect.

Thomas