But the compactRio modules are low priced and would be a good alternative for standardized and repeatable measurements in the private sector (?). The advantage is supposedly the high number of modules and the fast integration into the test environment.
Nevertheless, when i see the many test equipment here on EEVBLOG, which is sometimes very high priced, i wonder why such environments like LabView is not seen more often.
Probably the wrong tree.
First, I wouldn't call compactRIO particularly inexpensive.
Second, NI isn't compactRIO. CompactRIO is just a package. PXI is also good.
Third, NI isn't just Labview. Labview has strengths and it has weaknesses. NI has a lot of other useful software products besides Labview.
I built a startup on scanning light microscopy. We needed several multifunction DAQs (regardless of the number of ADC's, the NI DAQs only have a limited number of control channels), along with a high sample rate reconfigurable I/O module. We used the reconfigurable I/O module to act as a high sample rate digitizer via the on-board FPGA.
NI's Labview provided a good way to perform the FPGA synthesis and build the digitizer quickly. We did not use Labview for anything except the HDL synthesis. We had good C/C++ windows library support and MATLAB interfaces with NI's API's. All stable enough software to build our entire toolchain.
The CompactRIO chassis allowed us to consolidate most of the scanning hardware to a single backplane. Before that, it was a rats nest of wires that only appealed to the disheveled mad scientists.
The NI support is pretty good, as well. They have a big staff of application engineers and the online support is quick. That said, if I was a lone individual trying to get something done on a shoestring budget, I wouldn't consider NI to be a first choice.
Just wanted to add - we moved to PXI chassis for the high resolution / high frame rate imaging...the ADCs were much faster on the PXI's but we didn't have to do hardware rework when moving to PXI from CRIO.
Quite frankly, the alternatives for high-sample rate 14-bit ADC digitizers can be expensive - the NI digitizer solution saved us money. The compactRIO was just a convenient way to package everything in a single chassis. The PXI is really awesome, more capability but larger and more expensive.