Best solution for LabVIEW VI on tablet/ phone?

[shreya005]

I have a very specific doubt, so please be patient.

I have this LabVIEW program for intelligent charging of Electric Vehicles (EV) which communicates with the hardware (charging station and EV) via c-RIO modules. The PC has 2 LAN cables, one connected to the internet and another to the c-RIO system. I want this program to be available on a tablet/ mobile phone (the tablet being tested for the time being is Surface RT with Windows 8 OS). I have ruled out the following options for the reasons mentioned:

1) Remote front panels: Surface doesn't support LabVIEW Run Time Engine.

2) LabVIEW Web UI Builder: Although it says that Microsoft Silverlight is supported on Windows tablet, I couldn't find anything on the RT Store.

3) LabSocket System: It's extremely expensive and only available for LabVIEW 2013. My program runs on LabVIEW 2012.

4) Webpager: I've used the trial version. Although it works for smaller VIs (with control difficulties), it doesn't show anything on the webpage for the main program (which is a state machine with multiple tabs and the tabs can only be accessed in a sequential manner). Also it works on PC but not on tablet.

There are few other options which I have few queries about:

1) Data Dashboard: It seems to be the best option so far. So, I gathered the system and the tablet should be within the same internal network. For that should I connect the c-RIO and the tablet via a common network or the PC and the tablet? will it have time lapses in graphs if I switch to and fro the pages? 

2) VI Remote: Can an iPad/ iPhone/ iPod be used to remotely control the program using the VI Remote toolkit?

3) T4SM has this product called Remote Control for LabVIEW. How useful would the product be for this application? Would it be compatible with the existing tablet? 

Please assist me in deiciding which the most feasible option is. Thanks. 

[ClaudioV]

I can write about RCF (Remote Control Framework): RCF runs on LabVIEW for Windows and for LabVIEW-RT. CompactRIO and SingleboardRIO families are suported.

You use RCF ADD-ON to define your system interface and deploy your LV programm in your cRIO. Your users/customers have to install a FREE RCF client, available from Apple Store and Google Play respectively for iOS and Android, and can interact immediatly with your Real-Time system. 

Connections are password protected and data are trasferred in crypted format, optimized to minimize consumed band. With RCF you define parametric commands in LabVIEW, and RCF clients will generate "command forms" at run-time. This solution is named Remote Control because users have an interface very similar to a Remote Control and learn to interact with every LabVEW based system, regardless from its complexity, in few clicks.

In addition, RCF can display data coming from your CompactRIO, in different styles: histograms, charts, X-Y charts, tables, pie charts, etc.

Since RCF passes only data that your LabVIEW program wants to publish, there is no overhead like when you publish the whole panel.

More details are available here: Remote Control Framework Features

[PackersFan]

While it definitely requires the most work, the solution that will provide the best user experience is to create LabVIEW web services on your most computer and then write a native client application for your tablet or phone to access that API.  Web services are cross platform and are supported by practically all najory programming languages.

However, this will require skill beyond LabVIEW programming.

[MarcDub]

I like VI Remote. You can test it for free (running only 2 minute at a time) and the app costs $20.

The VI needs to run on a server (a windows machine). You connect to the server with your phone using the application. For a handheld control, it is plenty fast enough. I even used it to show a web cam output on my phone and it worked pretty well. You also have access to the device accelerometer and dual-finger control. You can run any VI on your phone with minimal modifications of the provided example VIs.

So, if running the VI on a windows server is acceptable, VI remote might be a solution for you.