topic Re: I am about to be repurposed in BreakPoint

I am about to be repurposed

AnalogKid2DigitalMan — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:47:05 GMT

Well, after 30+years of sporadic use (and several successful applications deployed) of LabVIEW for my employers is coming to an end.

I am retiring next week, a bit sooner than I expected, and all is well.

Here is my last ‘corporate’ LabVIEW program, please don’t critique it too much.

A shout out to all Forum members past, Wireworkers we have lost along the way, present, and future….

And also BlondeGrrrl (at least she was more interactive than New Member replicant posts from Reddit).

https://forums.ni.com/t5/BreakPoint/Hi-Fellow-Programmers/td-p/379333

Seriously though- my programming skills, architectures, and capabilities improved just by soaking in the knowledge base of the Community Forums. Thanks to all even if I didn’t kudo every post that contributed to such.

I’ll probably install the Community Edition to tinker with at home and also be dropping by the Forums periodically (probably to ask for help with downloading/activating the CE).

Respectfully and Thankful:

AK2DM

Re: I am about to be repurposed

JB — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 07:40:10 GMT

For the elegance of the code, but in this particular case mainly for security reasons, I would have placed the "Retirement Date" control outside the loop.

All the best for your retirement!

Re: I am about to be repurposed

Henrik_Volkers — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:26:17 GMT

Froher Unruhestand! 🙂

(German: Ruhestand -> retirement , Unruhe -> fidget or restlessness, Froh -> happy 😄 )

Re: I am about to be repurposed

altenbach — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:24:14 GMT

Happy upcoming retirement!

I still remember meeting you at one of the NI weeks many years ago!

@AnalogKid2DigitalMan wrote:
Here is my last ‘corporate’ LabVIEW program, please don’t critique it too much.

Well, this is what we do, so here's a list: 😄

the need for 0.1s updates demonstrates your impatience with all this, so this is OK
While I do like the LED font and custom time format, I would have expected an array of picture rings where each number is a picture of a nixie tube. (Use code similar to this, but replace the cluster with a picture ring)
The retirement date should be a diagram constant.
It should be made into an executable that auto-starts after each reboot.
The stop condition should be based on the relative time changing sign and then trigger a firework show, while paying a tune.
...

Yes the community edition is a great way to keep participating here. Hopefully it will eventually be 64bit. I've been retired 60% for a few years (soon 80%), but my time spent programming in LabVIEW has not slowed. It is too much fun to teach an old computer new tricks!

Enjoy it!

Re: I am about to be repurposed

Darren — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:22:19 GMT

Congrats on retirement! How do I get that sweet LED font in my numeric controls?

Re: I am about to be repurposed

altenbach — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 18:31:57 GMT

@Darren wrote:

Congrats on retirement! How do I get that sweet LED font in my numeric controls?

I was wondering that too.

(Just doing a web search returns plenty of LED/LCD fonts but I have not explored deeper and I am not eager to add fonts to all my windows machines until this 16yo idea is implemented... 😮 )

Re: I am about to be repurposed

Henrik_Volkers — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 21:34:32 GMT

Here is some pre LED inspiration (sorry for the quality of the pic, source is Wellenkino at Maker Fair )

top is a Panaplex display

middle is nixi

bottom is the most beautifull , sorry can't remember the name , each digit is a transparent plate with holes/markings, lighted from seperate bulbs below. (This voltmeter beauty has a build-in Weston-element as refeference)

Most famous scene for that type of display is this classical Goldfinger count down ... stopping at ... well you know it 😄

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBIZQcVMaNo

Edit: other picture

https://www.electricstuff.co.uk/auctions.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9F8uALgCRk

Re: I am about to be repurposed

wiebe@CARYA — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:25:38 GMT

@Darren wrote:

Congrats on retirement! How do I get that sweet LED font in my numeric controls?

Download a LCD Font, install it in Windows (right click the file), select in LabVIEW.

LCD Fonts

Re: I am about to be repurposed

alexderjuengere — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:12:32 GMT

- https://www.keshikan.net/fonts-e.html

- licence: https://openfontlicense.org/

Re: I am about to be repurposed

AnalogKid2DigitalMan — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:48:25 GMT

@JB wrote:

For the elegance of the code, but in this particular case mainly for security reasons, I would have placed the "Retirement Date" control outside the loop.

All the best for your retirement!

Well, I had a hunch that date may change and indeed it did (was planning for 2027) hence I wanted the real-time update option.

-AK2DM

Re: I am about to be repurposed

AnalogKid2DigitalMan — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:56:37 GMT

@altenbach wrote:

Happy upcoming retirement!

I still remember meeting you at one of the NI weeks may years ago! Yes, 2007 I beleieve it was back in the good old days of NI Week.

@AnalogKid2DigitalMan wrote:
Here is my last ‘corporate’ LabVIEW program, please don’t critique it too much.

Well, this is what we do, so here's a list: 😄

the need for 0.1s updates demonstrates your impatience with all this, so this is OK Agreed.

While I do like the LED font and custom time format, I would have expected an array of picture rings where each number is a picture of a nixie tube. (Use code similar to this, but replace the cluster with a picture ring). I am a fan of pixies (us old-timers) but I had that LED font for ages...

The retirement date should be a diagram constant. NOOO.....

It should be made into an executable that auto-starts after each reboot.

The stop condition should be based on the relative time changing sign and then trigger a firework show, while paying a tune. I had thought of adding NASA or Star Trek sound-bites to fire off, but...

...

Yes the community edition is a great way to keep participating here. Hopefully it will eventually be 64bit. I've been retired 60% for a few years (soon 80%), but my time spent programming in LabVIEW has not slowed. It is too much fun to teach an old computer new tricks!

Enjoy it!

Re: I am about to be repurposed

AnalogKid2DigitalMan — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 17:57:56 GMT

@Darren wrote:

Congrats on retirement! How do I get that sweet LED font in my numeric controls?

Thanks Darrren, I forget, but I have had it for years.

-AK2DM

Re: I am about to be repurposed

aeastet — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:25:43 GMT

Have fun in retirement.

It has been almost 30 years of LabVIEW programing for me. I have a feeling that I am not to far behind. I certainly hope so. I do still have fun with this stuff most days. THat is why I am still doing this.