Suggestions for hardware to run a PID Controller on

[controlcat]

What are good hardware options to design a PID Controller system on? My use case is:

1. No digital inputs or outputs needed
2. 4 Analog Outputs 4 to 20 mA
3. 8 Analog Inputs  4 to 20 mA
4. Frequency of response / sampling freq. can be very low without constraints. The processes to be controlled have a very slow time response so control loop speed is not of essence
5. Some logging capabilities would be good but not essential. 
6. Basic PID ability is enough. No advanced features are needed.
7. Single standalone card is ideal but if not I'd pool cards to get the required number of I/Os

Indeed this can be done with a commercial, off the shelf PID controller. But they are expensive  and I'm exploring if NI-DAQ can be a competitive solution. 

Comments? Sugesstions? 

[Rairiki]

Hi controlcat 

I hope you are doing great. Regarding your concerns about hardware to implement your PID and found some information and I think that depending of the frequency of your application you can use a myDAQ or a myRIO.

NI myRIO

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/211694

NI myDAQ

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/210929

With the NI myDAQ  I found an example of and PID using to contol a motor

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-16983

And with the myRIO there are a lot of options for PID implementation, in the next link talks a little bit about this

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Academic-Hardware-Products-ELVIS/How-to-implement-PID-control-on-the-myRio/t...

These options that I talked about are cheap and off course there are a lot more so I strongly recommend you to call to our sales department and they will help you further with more information of our hardware.

Regards,