It´s a little bit surprising for me that this professional test equipment gains such a low interest if i compare the posts about test equipment. Once in a while in my business there come the question to get National Instruments and, for example PXI chassis and modules because of something "standardized" testing for example with LabView or LabWindows.
Therefore i reconsidered my private test equipment with several multimeter, oscilloscopes, signal generators, etc. and when i think about it, it would be much more compact and concise to have one chassis with several modules and a software in favour of several test devices and a zoo of test programs, equipment and starting from scratch every time i think of a new project. And therefore, the ramp up for every new project is cumbersome if there is some amount of time between them, because OS changes, computer changes, and i have to search and collect often from scratch interfaces, probes, devices and start from zero with testing or developing.
I am aware that such devices like from NI are expensive, but they have also small chassis for an reasonable amount of money with slots for 5 or 6 modules. In my mind (it is only a theory) the devices would be in place, the software would be in place and if i use the NI software, LabView for example, i always have a defined hook where to start from. And, before all, a functioning one.
Ok, maybe that's only ideal (or wishful) thinking from me, a theory, but what do you think, is it a good way (maybe a little bit more expensive) to set up an NI testing environment?
Ok, when i look at the prices i am convinced that the PXI prices makes the difference: a PXI chassis with 5 slots costs more costs 1250€ and the modules are not very cheap so an oscilloscope (modul) to operate on an connected computer would already costs. For companies where time is money (but for whom not) this would be a useful way.
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.
I wonder what the pro and cons may be.
Or do i bark up the wrong tree?
regards