Video National Instruments VirtualBench Review, Teardown & Experiments - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / testgear

author: Hugoneus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2015, 01:54:56 pm
content: A close look at the VirtualBench lab-in-a-box from National Instruments:You can watch the video here: [1 Hour & 1 Minute]youtu.be/8N2MhA9N77IMore videos at The Signal Path:http://www.TheSignalPath.com

author: BFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2015, 05:35:11 pm
content: Quote from: Hugoneus on August 23, 2015, 01:54:56 pmThank you for next nice videoI'm little disappointed from quality of cables.And one function can be very helpful: sweeping of function generator.I'm waiting for software upgrade

author: HighVoltage
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2015, 07:35:53 pm
content: Although this is something I would not consider for my lab, I really liked your review.You have always a really great balance between review, repair and experiments.Thank you for the effort you put in to your videos.

author: Dr. Frank
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2015, 05:42:56 am
content: Nice, interesting video!Frank

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 24, 2015, 06:07:57 am
content: Can't wait to see this one. I have made the commitment to Labview but have not settled on all the hardware. I did look at this system and was wishing there was something between this and a full PXI chassis which can gt really expensive.

author: Hugoneus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2015, 04:31:36 pm
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on August 24, 2015, 06:07:57 amAs I mentioned, if you like to play around with LabView this would be a fun instrument to play with.

author: Neganur
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 20, 2015, 12:42:10 pm
content: Finally got my quote from NI (the instrument has been on backorder for a while now). It's 2.5k EUR (USD 2,830) after VAT and I think I will say no.I think I would have bought it for 2k EUR but 2.5k amplifies the points I did not like about it a little too much.Originally, I was looking for a programmable three channel power supply, and since many of my projects are of embedded nature the digital I/O and mini-logic analyser were a welcome feature. Other projects are of such nature that I need to power a device and verify current consumption, measure voltages at test points, switch some I/O lines to change an RF path, maybe send a SPI command and make an amplitude /phase measurement between two LF signals (i.e. I/Q).The VirtualBench feature list is really a good match for what I have in mind and it's such a nice form factor & can be controlled with e.g. C/Python/Labview. But to use some of the features, like using the I/O to talk SPI or I2C, you really have to use custom scripting since the VirtualBench application itself doesn't support it (yet).My humble list of gripes:Some scope measurements are only available via the VirtualBench application (waveform measurements, math)It sounds like the memory is shared between the LA and the scope? enable several channels and you may end up with 4kSa (but this might be rare)No sense wires. Yeah I can probably hack it to provide it but damn, there's already no binding posts on the front panel - surely a wider header for the PSU connector would have been possible.Can't enable/disable the PSU channels separately; at least I did not see it in the C or LabVIEW API.The 25V channels can only supply 500mA. (Now, I don't need 5A but 1 A would have been more useful.)Scope and function generator are useful addons and I suppose if you're setting up some data logging with it you can still use your main scope etc.For now, I think I'm better off buying a separate PSU since the VirtualBench just doubles a lot of the instruments I already own without adding anything or replacing completely.A good programmable triple channel PSU costs somewhere in the vicinity of 1-1.5k EUR and the VirtualBench doesn't do the PSU part well enough in my opinion.