Length of Test

[brethigh]

I need to run a test to record temperatures inside of a gear box and I plan to use FlexLogger, cDAQ 9174, and 2x NI 9211 cards.  The test will be running a minimum of 300 hours nonstop.  Will it be an issue to have FlexLogger running this long without a break?  I know it can be setup to break the data into multiple files, and barring any power outages, in theory I don't think there's an issue.  Can anyone confirm?  Thanks.

[labviewman]

FlexLogger is a fantastic long needed application...we really love it, but, any use beyond a day or 2 in our experience results in some strange behaviors. We have seen graphs stop working, excessive RAM and CPU usage, and sluggish behavior...and this was when FlexLogger was only running idle. If it were me, I’d write something In LabVIEW for a PC (not connected to the internet!) or a cRIO (not connected to the internet).

[Brian.D]

There have been several improvements to FlexLogger over the past releases that have improved the long-term reliability. For example, in the most recent release (2019 R4), a bug (memory leak from a graph) was fixed. 

Outside of those improvements, there are various settings that can help improve performance, like modifying the long term history length.

labviewman, what version of FlexLogger are you using? Do you have any graphs on the screen?

Best,

Brian D.

[labviewman]

We are using R2 and R3. I just setup R4 since I need to publish the data in the R3 data to Modbus using the LabVIEW FlexLogger SDK 1.1 and an add-on Modbus driver since the DSC Modbus driver isn't supported in LabVIEW 64 bit. We were using multiple graphs with the R3 setup.

[labviewman]

We have been using FlexLogger 2019R4 for the past few weeks...seems quite solid. The eventual usage of all RAM and excessive loading of the CPUs seems to have disappeared.

[brethigh]

The tests I had to run went smoothly.  I ended up having to break them up into 3 phases, with each being well over 100 hours, and the longest over 160 hours.  I didn't have any issues with FlexLogger during these tests, though I recommend making sure you have your logging settings set correctly and don't end up with 10x more data than needed.

[labviewman]

Glad to hear it worked for you!

We used 2019R4 for at least a week w/o a restart...it's much more robust but had a few minor display glitches that I have been told are fixed in 2020R1, but I haven't had time to test.