Different hardware companies, any Problems with LabVIEW

[Robert_Schröder]

Hi

I have LabVIEW driving a Newport MM4000. Now I have to include some additional OWIS components. Are any Problems known driving two different hardware companies? Or would it be better to stay with one company?

[Robert_Schröder]

ok, some additional infos.
I need to control 6 different motion actuators (until now are only 2 installed and controlled by a Newport MM4000) and read out sensor data. The new motion actuators will be from OWIS. Now are there any problems known to fusion different companies hardware in LabView or would you encourage me to build the hole device using from only one company?

thanks

[Robert_Schröder]

Any help would be appreciated.

[GerdW]

Hello Robert,

normally it's of no interest where you buy your hardware. It's more interesting which communication ports it uses...

To my experience there will be no problems mixing hardware from different HW suppliers. I'm working with GPIB and serial
port.

Best regards,
GerdW

[Ray.R]

Typically, there is no problem in mixing the hardware / manufacturer..

(having said that...)

From experience.. there are situations where an alternative manufacturer makes a "fully compatible" hardware, which is almost 100% fully compatible. We discovered that some GPIB cards were good but did not have certain features we needed, thus the 100% compatibility that was claimed was actually untrue.

I have not seen limitations with NI products, and purchase them because of that reason. (Did I just advertise NI?? oops!)

The point I'd like to make is that if you develop using a hardware from one manufacturer and you select an alternative mfg, you may be in for a surprise. In our case it was to acquire screen captures from a R&S Spectrum Analyzer. The NI GPIB card worked well. That of another manufacturer did not. I can't remember the exact reason.

-JLV-

[Ray.R]

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@JoeLabView wrote:
The point I'd like to make is that if you develop using a hardware from one manufacturer and you select an alternative mfg, you may be in for a surprise.

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I wish we had an edit post feature... SORRY.

What I meant was that if you use a particular hardware to develop code, and it works, stick with that hardware.
Developping code with one hardware and then deploying using another hardware may introduce incompatibility issues. MAYBE. Most likely, things will be fine... (at least that is what we thought)

-JLV-

[bushman]

On a slightly different note.
It depends on how you wrote the program. If you did an Object Oriented approach, the new axis is just another object and any special requirements are dealt with in that object. If the code was written procedurally, it might be a bit more difficult to integrate.