[How to get] 48 DIO, 32 AI, 16 AO, 2 Counters

[Arvel]

Hello Forums!

There is this machine which is currently controlled by a Mitsubishi PLC System. Unfortunately, this is not flexible enough. I want to replace the whole LPC System with a LabVIEW PC and a DAQ-Board.

That means I want to connect all the wires that are attached to the PLC to some NI Hardware. However, this requires many inputs/outputs.
Precisely I need 48 Digital-I/O Channels, 32 Analog Inputs, 16 Analog Outputs and 2 Counters with a sampling rate of at least 2 2.5 Mhz.

Unfortunately, there is not one box that has all that. Can I just use several NI Boxes? Or is this simply a bad idea, I know it will be quite expensive...?
What is the best way of finding the best configuration for me?

Best regards and have a nice weekend,

Arvel

[crossrulz]

Contact your local NI representative.  They should be able to find the best solution for you.  Just quickly thinking about it, you can probably get what you need in just a couple of PCI DAQ cards.  And these cards are not that expensive for what they are.

[BruceAmmons]

The sampling rate isn't quite clear.  Is that the sampling rate for just the counters, or the entire system?  Did you mean 2.5 MHz?  The extra 2 is confusing.  This is an easy sampling rate for a counter, but difficult for AI.  I can't imagine a PLC that could sample AI at that rate.

If you don't need that fast of sampling for the AI and AO, you have a few more options.  A cDAQ system with a few modules would work well and the price would be reasonable.  Or, like crossrulz says, a couple of PCI cards would work as well.  I personally would probably use a cRIO system, but I like putting most of the program on the hardware, and they take a little more programming experience and a few more LV toolkits.

Bruce

[Arvel]

Thank you both for your help!

The sampling rate was meant to be just 2.5Mhz and just for the counter.

The cDAQ solution definately looks good.
I found that I also can use seven USB 6008's. Thats way cheaper, the hardware is not as good as the cDAQ but the price is very good. Is it possible to control seven USB 6008s with one LabVIEW VI? It seems alot to me...

I have the feeeling that this might be a bad solution, what do you think?

Best regards!

[BruceAmmons]

Technically, the USB 6008 might work, but I see a few issues:

Seven USB ports might confuse the PC or slow down the data transfer.

I wouldn't want to keep track of seven different devices in a single program.

Synchronization between the units would be almost impossible.

The analog inputs and outputs are only 12 bit.  This works fine in many cases, but 16 bit is usually significantly better.

Even though the cDAQ solution is more expensive, the programming and bookkeeping will be much simpler.  The hardware would be much cleaner, also.

Bruce

[Arvel]

I see, so maybe in the end its a waste of money and time...

What do you mean with the synchronisation? Can't I create a thread for every Input/Output and then start them each where I need them? I though inside of the program, I dont really "see" that there are seven different devices. I wanted to just name every input from Analog In0 to Analog In31 and then use them like they came from one device.
The OS would take care of the rest.

[BruceAmmons]

Getting things to happen at the exact same time on multiple devices would be difficult.

If you are only reading or writing occasionally and don't plan on doing any streaming of data, you might be okay with the USB 6008.

If you are trying to do any sort of data analysis, logging, or stuff like that, a single device would make it much easier.

Bruce