Traditional Soft Front panels vs InstrumentStudio, a comment.

[janaf]

After updating to version 18 drivers, the default SOft panels, icons, MAX etc Soft Panels point to InstrumentStudio.

That software easily consumes 50% of the CPU capacity on the older PXI controller when starting up an SMU or DC power unit. Not usable. 

After some searching, I see that the previous style soft panels are still installed. Didn't check them all. 

For PXI utility boards like DMMs, SMU, PSU, FGEN, DC power, Scope.... I hope the "traditional" lightweight soft panels will be available also in the future.

(I guess this is not specific PXI problem but there's no InstrumentStudio section on the forum).

[Austin_W]

What hardware (SMU, DMM, and PXI controller) are you using with InstrumentStudio?  Knowing this will help us reproduce your use case.  Can you tell us more about how you use the "traditional" SFPs (or how you'd like to use InstrumentStudio) in your work?

[janaf]

I have small PXI-1036 with a PXI-8102 controller for "slow" units. Right now

PXI-5606 FGEN

PXI-4110 DC PS

PXI-4071 DMM

PXI-4132 SMU

PXI-4462 AD/DA

I use them on a R&D workbench, as replacement for traditional stand-alone hardware for "manual" work, i.e. no programming involved.

I attach a screen dump where I have the DMM and DC PS running "traditional" VIA soft fronts while the SMU is running InstrumentStudio. For me, until NI's done some serious performance optimizing, I'm not even considering using InstrumentStudio.

The same type of performance issues once killed my interest in SignalExpress and the Sound and Vibration Toolkit. I found alternatives. 

(I also have a PXIe-1082 with a PXIe 8135 for higher performance work, PXIe units like digitizers, multi-channel units, but that's another story.).

[janaf]

PS forgot the screen dump. The 60% CPU is the one running in InstrumentStudio.

[janaf]

Here's the screen dump again, jpg. 

[Austin_W]

Thanks for the additional information.  What version of the DCPower driver and InstrumentStudio (Help>>About) do you have on this system?

[janaf]

The latest.

My system is continuously updated by the Update service / NiMax, InstrumentStudio settings are out of the box, first time I used it (had it running for an hour before the screen dump, began looking when I noticed the performance was hogging.

[janaf]

PS, Just checked.

NI-power is 18.2

InstrumentStudio, 18.0.0

[janaf]

I made this screen-dump:

PXI 8102 in PXI 1036, InstrumentStudio, one PXI 4110 running (i.i DCP, not SMU as I wrote on the plot)

- Output on one channel; trace plotting, 80% CPU.

- Trace paused, output still on, CPU drops to 10%

[Austin_W]

Are you using the 4110 in a large SFP with a chart?  If so, you might get better performance by moving it into a small SFP that just has readback values and no chart.

For some of the DCPower devices, including the 4110, we call niDCPower_Measure to get data back to the SFP, which is less efficient that calling niDCPower_Fetch.  This is according to what methods are supported by the DCPower API for each device.  

I understand that you are concerned by the processor usage when the power supply is being displayed on the chart.  Are there any noticeable issues with update rate of the graph or responsiveness of the UI when the power supply is displayed on the chart?