NI 9870 and binary coded decimal (BCD)

[imr]

I have a scale that outputs the weight in 4 digit ASCII form which I would like to input into a CompactRio 9072 with a NI 9870 card and convert to a binary integer. The weight appears as the 7th to 10th character on lines that are terminated by a CR. I am thinking I will need a loop that once the 10th character is read, the 4 least significant bits of the 4 characters are converted from BCD to binary and the character counter resets to 0 when a CR is read. I need a good method for converting BCD to an integer value in either labview or vhdl. The rest of the logic for this project is in vhdl, so I would not mind adding the conversion logic there, except that all the algorithms I have found require decimal division or comparison in several clock cycles.

[Greg_S-Video · Accepted solution]

Hello imr

Thank you very much for getting in touch with us!

I believe the following community example will resolve part of your issue.

Binary String to Number
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-11704

I have also provided some further information for those unaware of what Binary Coded Decimal represents.

What is Binary Coded Decimal (BCD)?
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/59C2A05C123008F286256CA90069A6F8

Thank you for choosing National Instruments!