GPIB Software
If you are doing GPIB test systems regularly or have a large suite to develop, then use Agilents VEE, NI’s LV or Measurement Studio, don’t mess with rolling your own code or other packages. You can literally save months on large projects.
Only use GPIB intereface hardware with Agilent and NI compatability. We recommend the industry leader ICS out of California.
However if you are developing a one off system that is going to be inhouse and part of a product, go with C# now.
Imaging & Motion
If you are doing Imaging or Motion systems regularly or have a large suite to develop, then again, use NI’s LV or Measurement Studio, don’t mess with rolling your own code, unless you are a expert programmer. You can literally save months on large projects.
In these situations, only use Imaging or Motion intereface hardware that connect to NI compatability. Most manufacturers do, Adlink, DT, NI etc.
However if you are developing a one off system that is going to be inhouse and part of a product, also go for C# now.
Do look at Adlink’s new Motion hardware and software, very very good.
DAQ
LabVIEW, Dasylab and DAQ Factory all have a loyal following as they allow rapid builds for DAQ.
New Tools like DAQami allow DAQ, Graphing, charting, file in Excel foramt with a NO programming setup. Very nice.
The new MCC ULX library for LabVIEW bring multitasking and polymorphic functions into LabVIEW. Excellent with loads of working examples.
There is now an Android ULX style driver set that allows USB and Bluetooth DAQ with no fuss rioght into a tablet or smartphone.
Other Embeddable Tools
In general there are three camps for Embedding. Pure Code Embedding, like Dynamic C,
Linux for ARM adn Intel with RT addons.
Intel/Microsoft CE or XP/Win7/8 embedded camp.
Where you require services like disk drives, networks, VGA display, PCI, PCIe, USB interfacing etc Linux or CE or XP/Win7/8 tools are the only way to go.
For any projects the Linux and Microsoft tools work extremely well. We have worked with teams who have used all three methods, Linux, CE and Embedded XP/Win7/8 and all teams express satisfaction with the results. They have also all used differnet manufacturers Embedded PC boards, so there is no issue with choosing the PC, all manufacturers support these tools and have compatable driver sets.
One of the big disappointments in the Microsoft embedded world is that you cannot transport normal XP, Vista or the Windows 7 code or applications across into CE and you have to go to the very expensive embedded XP solution, but it does work and well. For short run machines or systems this is viable.
Win 8 apparently fixes much of this and will definitely give Android, iOS, Linux a challenge, especially for Smart Phone and Embedded work.
Dynamic C from Digi/Rabbit
DC as it is called, has become quite a software development system for Rabbit Micro Embedding.
We have used DC for 29 years and can say that if you use the Real Time Multitasking Kernel supplied, you can build the most elegant embedded code going – bar none.
DC has a huge extra library set that takes all the work out of Ethernet TCP, FAT files, WiFI, Bluetooth, GSM, 3G, GPS, Mesh, encryption and much more.
The productivity gains are similar to the above software tools but amplified, as DC spans itself across generations of Microprocessor develpment and micro models, from the simple Z180 micros to Rabbit 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6000 series micros, arriving at powerful 16 bit micros with large memory maps, SD cards etc.
So use the same DC tool to build from simple to large embedded software suites. And it is free.
Most embedded programmers use the same tools across micro families as described above. However DC spans not only Rabbit micros but a large range of single board computers and an even larger range of embeddable core modules.
