NI myrio-1900 product operating range under maximum shock

[rolfk · Accepted solution]

The myRIO is using a plastic case and therefore I would not expose it to such shocks. The sensor inside may be able to measure up to 8g, but I'm pretty sure that the plastic casing will break somewhere long before that is reached. The mechanics of how the PCB is mounted inside the housing will rather sooner than later be breaking somewhere, and if the housing itself is exposed to such shocks it will certainly crack.

The cRIO version of the hardware is a different topic. They are rugged, with die cast housing and at introduction time of the cRIO hardware platform NI made a point of showcasing a stunt where they were doing life measuring of a device being dropped from the roof of the HQ building during the NI Week presentation of this new hardware. And the device kept measuring throughout the fall and also during the impact. But that was not a myRIO-1900 but one of the cRIO-9002 or 9012 controllers on a cRIO-9101 backplane or similar. For this hardware NI specified a shock resistance of 30g for a 11ms half-sine duration.

The fact that there is no shock resistance specified for the myRIO hardware means that NI has not tested it and did not want to guarantee anything. The fact that it has a plastic housing pretty much means that it can not stand mechanical shocks very well, no matter what. The electronic may be able to stand it but with a broken casing, the device is pretty much useless.

[constructionworker]

Thank you for your help and detailed explanation and I will test it myself to find the correct answer because I assume that the question I asked is not fully understood. There are correct answers as a mechanical shock but that was not my question, yet we can choose an answer as a solution.

what I mean by shock is not mechanical shock, but the shock of sudden acceleration and deceleration.

[GerdW]

Hi worker,

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@constructionworker wrote:

what I mean by shock is not mechanical shock, but the shock of sudden acceleration and deceleration.

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What is the difference between "mechanical" shock and shock of "sudden acceleration"?

[AeroSoul]

He probably wants to yeet it with a catapult, NOT drop it on the ground from third storey window.

[rolfk]

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@constructionworker wrote:

what I mean by shock is not mechanical shock, but the shock of sudden acceleration and deceleration.

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I fail to see the difference. An acceleration is an acceleration (and a deceleration is a negative acceleration but otherwise equivalent) and causes forces on all the mechanical parts that are undergoing the acceleration.

Now if you would fill the entire myRIO-1900 with some compound so the PCB is rigidly mounted to the housing, you could obviously minimize the issues of acceleration on the little plastic standoffs that the PCB is mounted on and then the only issue is how to pass that acceleration onto the whole myRIO without crushing its case. But to exert an acceleration on some mechanical part you will have to apply a force somehow. Sure you can drop it from the roof of your house and it will accelerate with ~1g without any mechanical force (well except the air resistance) applied to the entire device during the free fall but that ends at the moment when it hits the ground and many times the 8g limit will occur as it decelerates from x m/h to 0 in a matter of a few milliseconds.

8g is quite a bit, where humans without a special physical training will typically lose conscience and with a little more you break your neck. I wouldn't trust little plastic standoffs to be more robust than our neck to be honest.