Can NI provide a TPC-2012 with Windows XP Embedded OS?

[Kaddatz]

We recently purchased a number cFP-2120's, to use as controllers, along with TPC-2012's for HMI.  My experience thus far with the TPC-2012 has been less than ideal.  Although the TPC-2012 is fine in terms of hardware, I find that the Touch Panel module has many limitations that prevent creation of elegant user interfaces.  This is not to criticize the Touch Panel module:  it has all the features necessary to create HMI for small display areas (<6").  However, the TPC-2012 has a whopping 12" of usable area, in which some very elegant user interfaces could be created.  Unfortunately, the fact that the TPC-2012 uses Windows CE (Touch Panel module) prevents this.

I have reviewed the forums and have found that NI does not officially support installation of LabVIEW on XPe; however, there seem to be many cases where XPe and LabVIEW have worked well together.  The key to success appears to be in ensuring that XPe is built with the necessary components.  Since XPe can, in theory, run any application that is developed for XP (provided that the right components are installed), I would suggest that XPe, with the LabVIEW run-time installed, would be ideal on the TPC-2012.  The benefits are as follows:

1)  All of the LabVIEW controls and properties would be available for the developer to create elegant interfaces for any cFP or cRIO application.

2)  Since NI provides the hardware, they can configure XPe components as necessary for smallest necessary footprint while retaining LabVIEW runtime support.   (i.e. The base platform is consistent and therefore supportable)

3)  Product specifications for the TPC-2012 indicate that it already supports Windows XPe. 

4)  The user would be able to deploy to the TPC-2012 by simply building a standard EXE application.

5)  Aside from screen template size, displays could be built such that there would be no visible differences to operators whether accessing via a local TPC-2012 or a remote-networked computer.

6)  The next available NI product up from the TPC-2012 is PPC-2015, which is almost twice the cost.  Given that this is an HMI only, it seems overkill to invest $4000 in a full-fledged computer with 1GHz processing power.  The TPC-2012 would be a very competitively priced option for HMI, with all the input, display, and network capabilities that LabVIEW has to offer.

I would be very interested in finding out more about the potential of this option from NI.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The correct place for this would be the Product Suggestion Center and not the LabVIEW board.

[Robert_Jackson]

Kaddatz,

I am the product manager for the TPC-2012 and really appreciate your solid feedback.  We announced a new XP Embedded 12", the TPC-2512 last week at NIWeek 2008.  This should be available for order from our website shortly.  I would be glad to share more details and would like to learn more about your application, I am on the PAC team as well and have worked with Compact FieldPoint.

Feel free to contact me directly, robert.jackson@ni.com

Robert Jackson

Industrial Product Manager

[Robert_Jackson]

All,

The 12" TPC-2512 with XP Embedded has released.  More information is available here.

Robert Jackson

[mohammed arif ahmed]

HI,

Is there any Labview runtime engine for windows CE 5.0 version, i need to run my cleint application on third party Touch screen panel on windows CE 5.0 version.

thanks..

Arif

[Joe D.]

Hi Arif,

There is not runtime need for a windows CE target. The application is built with all needed dependencies.

[mohammed arif ahmed]

Dear Mr. Joe Daily,

My labview application is on windows vista web server and I want to access my web client through web browser on third party windows CE 5.0 touch screen, so please suggest me whether I need to install labview runtime engine(2009) on my web client  or just I have to browser IP address of my web server to run and control my labview application on third party windows CE 5.0, I try with bowsering my web Server IP address its work on windows vista (labview is installed), but not on my third party windows CE 5.0 touch screen.

Thanks & Regards

Arif

[Joe D.]

Hi Arif,

to the best of my knowledge you can not use remote front panels on a windows CE device. The recommended use case for this would be to use shared variables and build a windows CE application.