LINX 3.0 - LabVIEW for BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi 2/3

[Kristoff2]

Hey everyone,

I'm excited to announce the launch of LINX 3.0 which adds the ability to deploy LabVIEW code to run on BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 for non-commercial use.  The process of developing LabVIEW applications for BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi is almost identical to other LabVIEW targets like myRIO and cRIO.  Add a LINX device to your LabVIEW project, create a VI under the target and click run! 

We've also updated LabVIEW Home edition to include a license for Application Builder to enable users to build executables with LabVIEW Home.  If you've already purchased LabVIEW Home your existing serial number will now activate Application Builder.

I can't wait to see the exciting projects you create with LINX 3.0 so make sure to join us at LabVIEW MakerHub to get started and share your projects.

-Sam K

[altenbach]

(Try to link to a different image, the one above is "forbidden".)

Wow, that sounds great, though!

[probs]

Hi Sammy,

Can I download LINX 3.0 in VIPM?

Acccroding to this page:

http://www.ni.com/gate/gb/GB_EVALTLKTLINXLVH/US 

I am using LabVIEW 2015 and can only see LINX 2.0 in VIPM.

-Polin

[Sam_Sharp]

Fantastic news - both about the ability to deploy LV code to RPi and that the home edition now includes the application builder.

1) Where can we actually get LINX 3.0? All of the download links / VIPM repositories give me V2.0.0.93.

2) What features are supported on the Raspberry Pi 2/3?

3) Can you tell us a little about how it works 'under the hood' - does it run a version of the LV RTE for Linux? Can you continue to use the RPi for normal/other stuff while the deployed application is running?

Very excited about this - just put in an order for a Pi 3 so I can try it out!

[Kristoff2]

We're waiting for the VIPM repo to refresh before it's visible in VIPM (some people can see it already).

For those who can't see the 3.0 update in VIPM

1. Go to the LINX page on the LabVIEW Tools Network.
2. Clikc Download.
3. Login if prompted.
4. Click Download from FTP

Featues / How it works

We're running the LabVIEW Runtime on the target just like we do on our Linux based RIO devices.  The great thing about using the full runtime is that you get the standard LabVIEW expereince with interactive mode, highlight execute, probes, startup executables, etc.  This also means that all of the core LabVIEW functionality will work.  One way to think about it is anything that works without explicitly installing it on the target from MAX should work on BBB/RPI.  We actually don't plug into MAX at all.   We currently do not support any toolkits or modules, but we've been experimenting with a couple to see what it would take to support things like web services.

Almost everything we've done will be open source and posted on GitHub in the near future.  The only closed source bits are the LabVIEW Runtime on the target and the LabVIEW Provider that makes the LINX targets show up in the LabVIEW project.

We're going to create some 'advanced' content on MakerHub that gets into the grisly details but we're focusing on the getting started content for now.

-Sam K

[Kristoff2]

I forgot to mention the hardware features.  For simplicity on this first release we went with the 'fixed personality' approach.  You can see the LINX pinout for the BeagleBone Black and Raspberry Pi on MakerHub.  Both Have DIO, SPI, I2C, UART and BBB has AI and PWM.  We hope to pull in some libraries to add things like Servo support, PWM on RPI, but those features didn't make it into this release.

I'm also very excited to see what the community builds on top of this.  I know we have some LabVIEW and Linux gurus out there and I hope this is good motivation to start hacking and share.

And yes you can continue to use the BBB and RPI2/3 just like you did before.  LabVIEW will just run in the background and you won't notice a difference unless you're running a VI that is using a lot of CPU.

-Sam K

[Kristoff2]

Hey Probs,

See the steps I posted above for downloading LINX 3.0, but keep in mind that deploying to BBB/RPI only works with LabVIEW 2014 SP1 for now since it was designed specifically to work with Home Edition.

-Sam K

[tst]

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@Kristoff2 wrote:
...but keep in mind that deploying to BBB/RPI only works with LabVIEW 2014 SP1 for now 

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I'll refrain from reacting to that publicly to keep the conversation civil. Any thoughts on a timeline for support for at least newer LV versions?

[Kristoff2]

No clear timeline at this point.  At the moment we're focusing on the 3.0 release - content, support, pushing our stuff to github, etc.  After that we need to evaluate where we go from there.  Three obvious areas to work on are support for newer version of LabVIEW, improve and expand the I/O support, or add additional software libraries (NI or 3rd party).

Community feedback will play a big role in how we prioritize new features.

-Sam K

[altenbach]

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@Kristoff2 wrote:

See the steps I posted above for downloading LINX 3.0, but keep in mind that deploying to BBB/RPI only works with LabVIEW 2014 SP1 for now since it was designed specifically to work with Home Edition.

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Does it require the "Home edition" or is any 2014SP1 (full, pro, etc.) OK too?