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"chaining" remote panel connections

Folks,

 

I am considering an application design for data acquisition that would be roughly as follows:

 

Client (web plugin) connects to "main" server. This server will be for viewing files, previous data, printing data, etc.  When it is time to acquire new data, the "main" server connects to "DAQ" server, which has the acquisition hardware connected to it.  For this to work, the "DAQ" server needs to send it's front panel to the "main" server which then sends it on to the client.  Before I go off requesting funds and time to do this, I want to make sure it is possible.  I don't see any reason this wouldn't work, but I want to verify.

 

Additional information:  The client can't connect directly to the "DAQ" server.  They are on different networks with the bridge being the "main" server.

 

Thanks,

-M

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I don't understand how you expect the "main" server to display the front panel from the "DAQ" server in a way that the client can see it, but why do you need all these levels of remote front panels anyway? Does the user on the client computer need direct control of the DAQ program?

 

I can't picture which set of functions you plan to use in your proposed design so I can't say definitely that it won't work, but I can't quickly imagine a situation in which it would unless I've completely misunderstood what you hope to do.

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Hi BowenM,

 

If your main server and DAQ server are both implemented in Labview, then it is possible (if I understand your setup correctly). You'll need a subpanel on the front panel of your main server. If you pass the subpanel reference to the DAQ server, it can insert itself into the subpanel using a property node.

 

Depending on your setup though, it might be cleaner to pass the DAQ data directly to the main server. I believe the DAQ can communicate directly with a remote machine through the shared variable engine (which is OPC under the hood). It could be worth your while to spend a couple hours testing some options before requesting funds (If you don't have the DAQ yet, your local NI rep might be able to lend you a DAQ with a DIO module for some quick testing).

 

Best of luck,

-Gary

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Gary,

 

Thank you for the response. I figured this is about how it would work, but I wanted to make sure. I hadn't considered the shared variable engine. I will have to look in to it.

 

One of the reasons to not stream the data live back to the "main" server is limitations on the network. There will be 7-8 of these DAQ systems, each of which may be acquiring high speed data at up to 40 channels. I don't want network "hiccups" to cause the possibilty of lost data. By connecting to a remote panel, the operator would still be able to get real time information about that data (plots, analysis etc) without the necessity to stream the live data across the network.

 

Thanks for your input.

-M

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Gary117 wrote:

If your main server and DAQ server are both implemented in Labview, then it is possible (if I understand your setup correctly). You'll need a subpanel on the front panel of your main server. If you pass the subpanel reference to the DAQ server, it can insert itself into the subpanel using a property node.


I haven't tried this, and don't have a setup available to test this right now, but the documentation says that you CANNOT put a remote VI into a subpanel: "You also cannot load the front panel of a VI in a remote application instance". So I can't see how this would work.

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@nathand wrote:

Gary117 wrote:

If your main server and DAQ server are both implemented in Labview, then it is possible (if I understand your setup correctly). You'll need a subpanel on the front panel of your main server. If you pass the subpanel reference to the DAQ server, it can insert itself into the subpanel using a property node.


I haven't tried this, and don't have a setup available to test this right now, but the documentation says that you CANNOT put a remote VI into a subpanel: "You also cannot load the front panel of a VI in a remote application instance". So I can't see how this would work.


I hadn't tried it before with remote machines, but I didn't realize that would be an issue. That's dissapointing.

 

You may have to send data directly then. Depending on the data you're acquiring and how it's used, you may be able to do some preprocessing on the DAQ server to minimize the amount of data you have to send across the network.

 

Sorry I wasn't more help

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