Rif.: Does Labview Embedded support support Microchip's PIC32?

[vitoi]

Buongiorno Riccardo,

Your product caught my interest. It took me a while to work out what your product is and the name 3Dmicro Toolkit threw me off course. The name sounded like something for three dimensional rendering rather than what I think the product is, which is a LabVIEW microcontroller development system for PIC32 microcontrollers. So, you may want to rethink the name to clarify the software's purpose. Also, it took a long time to work out what the product is. Most people would give up. My advice is to make it clear with the product name, and the first paragraph that describes the product, exactly what it is. This can be followed with elaboration..

Something like LabVIEW Embedded for PIC32 Toolkit would be a good name.

Two things gave me concern. The first is that LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is required. This is not a common inclusion for most LabVIEW installations and I suspect that it would be easy to rewrite your code to omit this toolkit. The second one was to see the dreaded C Code Generator. From what I understand, and I may be wrong, the C code Generator is prohibitively expensive (both upfront and on going). Maybe you have a deal with NI to distribute it at a reasonable price.

Also, have you done any performance measurements? LabVIEW Embedded for ARM has a LabVIEW/OS overhead of about 80%, which basically kills this as an option for most applications. You can see the performance measures at http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Embedded/LabVIEW-Embedded-Performance-Testing-Different-Platforms/td....

It would be a pity to lose almost 100 of the 120 DMIPS to overhead.

Finally, what does the entire package cost, both for the 3Dmicro Toolkit and the LabVIEW C Code Generator (and anything else beyond LabVIEW Desktop that may be required)?

Interesting product and I will follow its development with interest.

Ciao,

Vito

[R._Donnini]

Hi Vito,

thank you very much for you interest and detailed review of our product.

I'm pleased to answer your questions:

>The name sounded like something for three dimensional rendering rather than what I think the product is, which is a LabVIEW microcontroller development system for PIC32 microcontrollers

We can not use a name like "LabVIEW Embedded for PIC32 Toolkit" because PIC32 is a Microchip registered trademark and NI does not allow to use the LabVIEW word or part of it for the user not to get confused on the third-party ownership. We have an agreement with NI and we won't change the name.

> Two things gave me concern. The first is that LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is required.

LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is only an optional dependency of the 3Dmicro Toolkit, as stated in the Getting Started Guide.

The LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is required for Ethernet communication and not to develop the microcontroller program or to use the other functionalities. LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is indispensable to develop a custom application or integrate the Telnet communication with the PC-side LabVIEW program.

Taking into account what you have pointed out, will be release a LabVIEW project with a compiled version of the Ethernet interface to test and easily use it without the LabVIEW Internet Toolkit.

> the C code Generator is prohibitively expensive (both upfront and on going). Maybe you have a deal with NI to distribute it at a reasonable price.

Our toolkit does not include the C code Generator. For an academic user the Academic NI Italy is willing to deal on price.

> Also, have you done any performance measurements?

Thanks for your suggestion. Will be soon publish a series of performance test.

> Finally, what does the entire package cost

Contact us at info@3d-svs.com for the price of the license for the version that is now available in trial.

Regards,

--

Riccardo Donnini - 3D-SVS

Email: r.donnini@3d-svs.com

Web: http://www.3d-svs.com

[vitoi]

Hi Riccardo,

I'm sure it's OK to use the name "LabVIEW Embedded for PIC32 Toolkit". Others like MikroElektronika use the term "for PIC32" for their compilers. I'm no legal expert, but I think you can make anything "for xxxx" and label it as such.

Great to hear that the LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is not required.

It's a pity your product is for academic use. There is a good market in the commercial world for a contemporary, high performance and well priced LabVIEW for Microcontrollers.

Any chance of an indicative price for your product - very rough would do.

It's a pity that the product is not a complete package as customers will not want to have to buy 3Dmicro Toolkit to then find out they need National Instruments' C Code Generator to then find out they need ...

Regards,

Vito

[R._Donnini]

> Great to hear that the LabVIEW Internet Toolkit is not required

I'll release soon a link to download a compiled version of the Ethernet monitor VI to test the Telnet communication without the Internet Toolkit.

> It's a pity your product is for academic use. There is a good market in the commercial world for a contemporary, high performance and well priced LabVIEW for Microcontrollers

Our product is also for the commercial world. Talking about the Academic world i mean that for schools and university NI licenses may be issued with special advantages in the purchase of the C code generator with LabVIEW contacting NI vendors.

> Any chance of an indicative price for your product - very rough would do.

On April will be release the full version of the 3Dmicro Toolkit on our web site. For a preview of the price please send an email. We only use the official channel of our web site an email communication to talk about product price.

> It's a pity that the product is not a complete package as customers will not want to have to buy 3Dmicro Toolkit to then find out they need National Instruments' C Code Generator to then find out they need ...

We said many times that the C Code Generator is needed to work with our Toolkit. Taking into account your note will be clearly repeat on the Toolkit page.

Regards,

--

Riccardo Donnini - 3D-SVS

Email: r.donnini@3d-svs.com

Web: http://www.3d-svs.com

[Ancle]

Hi Riccardo,

I already mailed you, but you didn't answer me. My qusetion is

1. I am using LabVIEW 2010, is there a 3Dmicro Toolkit for LabVIEW 2010 version?

2.What's the price for 3Dmicro Toolkit license?

3.How to install 3Dmicro Toolkit - Arduino Expansion?

Thank you!

B/R

Ancle

[huck94]

Hello Riccardo,

I was wondering if your tool support LV 2017? Or should install 2011?

Regards,

huck94

[R._Donnini]

Sorry huck94, but our software for program Microchip's PIC32 with labview is available only on LabVIEW 2011.

Regards.