What is up with the Development Kits for the cRIO and and cDAQ? What happened to the cRIO-9951

[MrQuestion]

For years I've always wanted to develop my own module for the cRIO, and now that my kids have grown & moved out, LabVIEW now offers an affordable home version, and I finally have a respectable home lab, et cetera, et cetera,,,,

I see that NI no longer supports the cRIO-9951 module. 

I've built several FlexRIO Adapters and socketed clips over the years and always wanted to build my own modules for the little cRIO, but it looks like NI no longer supports third party development for that platform.

Is this True? 

Is the RIO's now a closed ecosystem? 

I want to make some cool stuff for some niche markets.

Is this one of those things ya have to talk to the Sales Engineers for to get more info on?

Regards,

~Me

[santo_13]

I believe it is still possible, but on a case-by-case basis. You might need someone at NI to talk with.

[rolfk]

It is still in the system somehow but not actively supported. And there are not many people at NI who know this is still a thing.

You are aware that you need to buy a cRIO Hardware Module Development Kit (MDK)?

This comes in two versions:

781017-03 cRIO-9951 Module Development Kit Base - Limited Use License              € 2.180,00

This gives you access to the development documentation, access to a private MDK Toolkit forum on here, a contact for technical questions by email and I believe a few empty C module shells. This does not allow you to sell any of the modules you develop in this way.
       

779020-03  cRIO-9951 MDK Suite - Quote Subject to Execution of MDK agreement   € 6.300,00

This gives you access to the development documentation, access to a private MDK Toolkit forum on here, a contact for technical questions by email and a certain number of support hours, and I believe a few empty C module shells. This does allow you to sell any of the modules you develop in this way.

194881-01  cRIO-9957 Module Die Cast Housings for cRIO MDK, Qty 100, Complete enclosure also requires NI-9958   € 2.250,00

This says that you also need the NI-9958 but that part can not be found in the online store anymore.

Also you can find these part numbers in the online store on ni.com but when you click the product link, the system claims that there is no page for this to show. Basically the entire online store is almost completely gone except of some select products.

Prices may not be accurate anymore, but have been considerably raised in the last 5 years as has anything cRIO and RT hardware based from NI. The sbRIO-9651 for instance was quoted at around € 630 in 2019 in quantities of 10, and is now € 1.590,00 per piece.

For both MDKs, you need to first find a contact at NI who will send you some legalize (the MDK agreement) that you have to sign before they would even consider to send you an official quote, and they might not if they don't find your use case useful.

It still exists but each of these items have a quoted delivery time of 60-65 working days. That is not so extreme if you consider that many other so called cRIO components have a quoted delivery time of 30-35 days, but it still seems ridiculous that a product that basically consists of a download archive that contains the manual with specifications for a confirming module, LabVIEW support libraries to access such a module and some examples for the few reference design examples they describe in the documentation should take about a quarter of a year to deliver.

[MrQuestion]

Thank you for the very thorough response. 

I've sent a message the local sales rep. I'll post back if I hear anything useful. 

[Nathan-M]

Please email this account if you haven't heard anything: crio.mdk@emerson.com