Lost in SW/HW possibilites

[Ice__man]

Hi everybody

I am working on a MSc. thesis for a company which is interested in implementing NI Labview in their laboratory. I have become a bit lost in the software (full/pro/suite add-ons etc.) and hardware (PC, Fieldpoint, CompactRio etc.) possibilities so I was wondering if any of you Labview Gurus might have the patience to take a look and tell what you would do?

System description:
The system in question is an environmental chamber. All in all there are 5 temperature sensors in the chamber, and one of them is the control signal, a powerful fun and a heating/cooling element

All temperature readings are should be logged to a SQL database ( I have license 😉 and it should be possible to generate reports in Microsoft Excel or Word.
On average an experiment will run continuously for 3 months.

Summation on hardware requirements:
     3 digital I/Os, 24V for control
     5 temperature readings for feedback and logging
     Probe range: -25°C to 30°C
     Accuracy: ± 0.5°C or preferably better
   

Each experiment will on average run continuously for 3 months and therefore hardware has to be reliable and tolerate e.g. electricity fluctuations as can on occasion occur in your average wall socket, the long period makes me a bit nervous of running the system on a PC as my experience is that not rebooting a PC running on Windows for a few days is asking for disaster.

Thanks in advance to all of you that made it to this line:)

[Norbert_B]

I suggest you to find out the sales representative of NI who is responsible for the company you are now working for. Simply call him/her and ask for a meeting where he/she can show you some hardware (potentially) and give some hints on how to approach the whole task.

Please do also talk about starting with the project since you probable require some training on LV and/or the hardware.

You will have to discuss suggested solutions with your mentor/team leader.

hope this helps,

Norbert

[Ben]

If this project is to learn LV then forget me.

If your focus is on the science, and hwo cares about the software check out Mackinfo.com.

They have a ready made solution.

21-CFR-11 complient yada yada yada...

Ben