Pxie mA card?

[ugadd]

People around here act like there's an actual 4-20mA card available by NI PXIe. I don't see anything on their website besides voltage, even when you filter for Current. It looks like NI just wants you to use voltage and apply your own resistors. This seems like a bulky solution and requires me to buy a bunch of precision resistors. Does NI have something I'm missing? If not, why not when it's the industrial standard?

I come from industry and am a bit new to the science world. Any advice or guidance is appreciated.

[rolfk]

Last time I checked, precision resistors were not really that bulky! 😁

And about 100 times cheaper than what the extra cost of an analog current input card would be.

And if you want to go industrial, cDAQ or cRIO is possibly the better approach than PXI.

[santo_13]

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@ugadd wrote:

People around here act like there's an actual 4-20mA card available by NI PXIe. I don't see anything on their website besides voltage, even when you filter for Current. It looks like NI just wants you to use voltage and apply your own resistors. This seems like a bulky solution and requires me to buy a bunch of precision resistors. Does NI have something I'm missing? If not, why not when it's the industrial standard?

I come from industry and am a bit new to the science world. Any advice or guidance is appreciated.

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A good thing about PXIe is that there are other manufacturers than NI, it looks like Pickering has a few models - https://www.pickeringtest.com/en-us/product/41-765-001-analog-output-current-loop-simulator-module-1...

[cstorey]

PXI SMUs will source current and measure voltage or vice versa.  SMUs aren't cheap, and are best suited for measuring than for long term biasing.  But you can get multichannel SMUs, or use a switch if you need to test many devices.  Long term bias you might want to look at the Pickering AOut cards - https://www.pickeringtest.com/en-ca/product/41-765-004-analog-output-current-loop-simulator-module-4....  Since some companies already make really good sources I think NI concentrated in other areas.

Hope that helps.

Craig