PXI Systems - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: ElektroQuark
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 10, 2013, 07:42:21 am
content: Hello:First of all: yes, I'm crazy.I have seen some PXI modules and chassys and they look like somewhat interesting to me, but I know near nothing about them. Reading NI pages is not great help, they suppose you know everything about those systems. Can someone point me to pages to learn the basics?Some modules have great funtionalityes at rasonable prices (chassys apart).It could be an interesting project to build a PXI system. I have timeHobbyist here ( I told you about my crazzynest).

author: owiecc
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2013, 03:25:54 pm
content: PXI is a top of the line for NI. They have some great functionality but it often comes at a price of quite difficult setup. Everything is done using LabView environment. Each module has some basic demos/libraries available. Browsing them is the easiest way to learn. Have you done anything in LabView before? Do you have a license for it? What would you like to build: data acquisition, RF, control platform, something else? If you are a hobbyist maybe start with an easier solution: cDAQ or cRIO. cDAQ is an entry level platform. cRIO is more advanced stuff with bigger control over hardware but also bit harder to learn.PS. NI has really great support through their forums. There also have application engineers that can help you with what you need. If you are at the university and you have a campus license you can use them for free.

author: Zucca
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 27, 2015, 03:45:53 pm
content: After seeing this (again and again!) splendidHugoneusvideohttps://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/video-review-and-teardown-of-a-keysight-mso-s-series-10-bit-20gss-oscilloscope/my curiosity pointed on the NI PXI equipment he has on the table.After doing a 5min researching on google my mouth was already watering. Nice piece of test equipment, flexible and powerful.Ok, a little research on ebay calmed down my exictement since those NI toys are rather expensive.Now I went back to the EEVblog forum and uh, why there is just this post on this equipment here?Maybe it is a little niche of LabView lovers, not for the EE mass.EdoNorkI am in your same siuation, any updates?

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 27, 2015, 05:14:26 pm
content: Quote from: zucca on January 27, 2015, 03:45:53 pmabout to say... better get out that checkbook.. you're going to need it!

author: Hugoneus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2015, 05:17:02 pm
content: I have been collecting PXI equipment for some time now. Some of them are very expensive. Agilent also makes a whole bunch of them.Normally they can be difficult to use, because there are no GUI interfaces on the instrument itself and you typically would want an embedded controller to go with it. I have mine running windows and Matlab as you saw and I can download waveforms into the arb that I have using it.I also have a switch matrix card and a Pickering high-resolution digitizer. Both of them have a soft gui you can run on the embedded controller PC. If you have any other question, let me know.

author: Wuerstchenhund
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2015, 05:36:50 pm
content: Quote from: EdoNork on October 10, 2013, 07:42:21 amPXI (PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation) is a standardized bus system for modular instrumentation systems. It's a successor of the older VME and VXI systems. PXI is basically a standard PCI or PCI Express 'bus' on a backplane. A PXI chassis (with 'i', not 'y') can take one or several modules, all which are in a standardized format. That's roughly it. A PXI system usually consists of a chassis, a controller (i.e. a Windows PC in PXI format) and one or several modules.A Google search should bring up plenty of more detailed explanations, like this (first hit when searching for "PXI basics"):http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/t_and_m/pxi/pxi.phpThe advantage of PXI is that, due to its modularity, it's easy to put together a purpose-specific measurement system, i.e. for industrial control systems. If you know what you're doing, that is.QuoteWith PXI you foremost need money. Lots of money. You can often find some modules (especially older ones that are no longer supported and for which suitable drivers are no longer available) at reasonable costs but other parts are usually painfully expensive (i.e. chassis, a decent controller, many of the interesting modules).And even if you get together the hardware there's not much you can do unless you have suitable software (i.e. LabView, which again is painfully expensive) and are able to write your purpose-specific test applications.

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 09:13:15 pm
content: I use PXI systems almost exclusively. I work with these semi-professionally, on-off. The number one reason for me using PXI is space. I simply have no space for a dozen 19" rack units.Costs; I'm on a budget, bought my stuff over about 10 years, a few modules per year, have a couple of racks and controllers and probably over twenty modules now, ranging from simple relay boards to some quite hi-spec modules. I did not buy any new parts except one small rack/controller unit. I'm sure the functionality of my collection of modules would have cost me way more as conventional instruments. As always, if you are prepared to wait, used secondhand and NOS modules turn up at very decent prices now and then (read EBAY). As usual, sellers are optimistic on pricing and as usual following the market gives you an idea of reasonable prices.NI and Lab-view are very dominant on PXI while Agilent seem more and more active. There are simple, very basic soft front panels (run on a PC) available for free from NI for many of their instruments. Then there are also free drivers and lots of sample code for lots of languages. A pretty wide selection is available for Linux. I do not use Lab View. I have not had the need. There is one third-part software that I use some, SigView, very good but it only supports some types of DAQ boards.I'd be glad to exchange info with others and help when time and knowledge allows.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 11:36:55 pm
content: I have been talking with NI about creating a system to help in both design and automated test in manufacturing. The PXI platform seems pretty cool if you can get past the learning curve. From a price perspective, I would not call it a bargain but it has so much value even for a small business like mine.The products I design are DC power management and conversion. It takes a very long time to test for all the scenarios we have to test for and we are adding tests all the time. A NI system can take hours of meticulous tests and automate them (maybe) to only 20 minutes unattended. I am speaking from theory because I have never used a system before, but that is what I am working with NI to accomplish.I am continuing to build a list of T/M gear that is now grown to a big list. It all started with be looking to do scope upgrade. What I have learned is that the right setup saves substantially more money than is spent - even for a small biz if you choose carefully. An easy example for me is that we had our first generation of a product that we thought was ready and sold about 50 pieces that were shipped all over the world. Turns out, they had some fatal flaws that would have been easy to discover if we had designed tests and had the equipment to execute the tests with. The next 4 months were dominated with worldwide returns to fix/replace the early boxes we sold. Our market is small so we have to support any/all customers to the bitter end. The expense of this flawed release cost way more than a full blown PXI kit with all the bells and whistles. Hard lesson that I would not like to repeat.Now I am nearly obsessed with creating tests that more fully characterize the performance and durability of what we are selling. This is was harder (and more expensive) than I had originally planned for when getting into power electronics. Back to the topic, I love the super compact and flexible options you get with a PXI system. I can make nearly any test I want even if the product and the tests change and it takes very little space to do so.eBay seems to have a solid offering of current modules. Are there any other good sources for used (but still current/supported) PXI modules?

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2015, 11:55:39 pm
content: Valuetronix?Quote from: rx8pilot on February 07, 2015, 11:36:55 pm

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2015, 09:31:26 am
content: Does anyone by chance have any schematics / repair info on the PXI-4110 PSU? I've got one that on start-up just gives an error message saying the mainframe 3.3V supply is not right or a fuse is blown. I'm sure it's not the mainframe (other modules ON and also tested in another mainframe) and I have checked all the on-board fuses I can find, five on the PCB, one on the front panel. Any clues?

author: janaf
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2015, 07:24:59 pm
content: Here is a screen dump of some "Soft panels" available for free for (some) NI instruments. A scope, DMM, power supply and signal generator. These are individual instruments, essentially not software interconnected in any way. On feature is that most NI instrument drivers can be run in simulation mode, without hardware. Helps when developing software.One downside with NI is they never ever heard of lightweight software. Each instrument is a 2GB package, including all basics, documentation, samples.There is a also a free NI "Signal Express" software, drag and drop style. Works but is very slow / demanding on PC resources.