implements NI Hardware in very low humidity environment

[tst]

Hello all

We have to build & control  a motion project in environment of 0-1% relative humidity.

Most of the electronic hardware, and NI's too, are suitable for 10% (rarely 5%) relative humidity,  or higher.

Dose enybody have an idea which (NI) hardware can do the job, and how ?

Thanks

Shimon

[RobCole]

I'll answer this as a person who used to do environmental testing.

I have tested electronics down as low as 2% humidity and typically low humidity is not a problem. A lot of electronics list 10% as the low limit because it is difficult (ie. expensive) to test below that. Without it having been tested at those levels, they just list a higher level.

You should not expect extremely low humidity to be a problem unless you are generating a lot of heat (water is a wonderful heat sink). Just keep air flowing in this case.

     Rob

[DJ_L.]

Hey tst,

For motion control, NI offers both stepper and servo motion controllers both for PCI and PXI busses. You can find more details on the following web site, www.ni.com/motion, about the motion controllers. You can also find information about the drives that NI offers, and other motion control accessories. Another option that you can consider is using other NI hardware, for example NI's Compact Rio controllers and modules, and then use the NI Softmotion software on the CompactRio. The Softmotion software runs primarily on RT targets only, so keep that in mind. 

On the lines of the humidity specifications, the lower limit is 10% for the above mentioned hardware, and NI does not recommend that you use it below that limit, but you can try it out. Also, operating at that low of a humidity is not supported and cannot guarantee that the hardware will work as specified. But as Rob said in his post, you might not have any issues with it.

Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns. Thanks.

Regards,

DJ L.