MICAS-X has always supported National Instruments' embedded data acquisition platforms, such as CompactRIO. In fact, roughly half of the MICAS-X systems deployed to date have included a CompactRIO or other embedded target. Before version 2.1, these embedded targets were integrated into MICAS-X as custom Instruments or custom Drivers. Using these methods, the full potential of the embedded system could be utilized, but at the expense of developing custom code. With the release of MICAS-X-RT, the broad functionality, flexibility, and configurability of MICAS-X is now available directly on LabVIEW Real-Time embedded platforms.
MICAS-X-RT itself is a direct port of the MICAS-X program to the RT platform. Due to the high degree of cross-platform compatibility built into LabVIEW, moving the bulk of the MICAS-X code to LabVIEW RT was straightforward. This means that all the advanced functionality of MICAS-X on Windows is available on LabVIEW RT, and that the code for this functionality immediately inherits the robustness and maturity of MICAS-X on Windows. MICAS-X-RT includes Alarms and Triggers, Sequences, Error and Event Logging, Data Logging, Data Acquisition and Control via MICAS-X Drivers, and much more. Due to the embedded nature of the RT platform, not all the functionality of MICAS-X is relevant to MICAS-X-RT. Since it is usually run headless, the user interface of MICAS-X-RT is seldom used and is quite basic. For the same reason, no user dialogs are implemented on MICAS-X-RT. However, due to its extremely high level of integration with MICAS-X on Windows, these omissions are easily remedied by using the WIndows host version of MICAS-X for the user interface..
MICAS-X-RT can be configured from the same Configuration Editor as MICAS-X. In fact, existing MICAS-X configurations can often be edited to work on MICAS-X-RT. Many of the same Drivers as are used on MICAS-X for Windows can be used directly in MICAS-X-RT. In addition, a RIO Scan Engine Driver has been created specifically for MICAS-X-RT which allows immediate, programming-free access to many IO modules and channels on RT systems via the Scan Engine interface. If custom FPGA functionality is needed in a project, that can also be added via a custom MICAS-X-RT Driver or Instrument.
Although MICAS-X-RT is normally run headless with no direct UI, the MICAS-XRT Driver, when added to MICAS-X on Windows, provides a highly functional, versatile user interface. The MICAS-XRT Driver translates all the input and output Driver channels on MICAS-X-RT directly to the MICAS-X Windows program. E.g. viewing data, including time-series graphs, is easy and immediate. Likewise, the output channels on the RT system can be controlled directly from the MICAS-X Windows program just as if they were local channels on the Windows machine. Finally, the MICAS-XRT Driver also brings all the Commands available on the RT platform directly to the Windows program. Thus, Sequences on the RT platform can be started and stopped directly on the Windows machine, just as local Sequences can. Channel values can be manipulated via the various Commands, and all the other programmatic functionality that Commands bring to MICAS-X are similarly available.
Data logging can occur on the RT platform (for maximum robustness) and/or on the Windows platform. Alarms that are triggered on the RT platform can be enunciated on the Windows platform using sounds, visual queues, emails, or other notifications. However, the embedding of key logic directly on the RT platform greatly enhances the robustness of the entire system, since it is much less susceptible to crashes and interruptions than a Windows computer. In some instances, MICAS-X-RT will be run alone, without a MICAS-X Windows interface, and act as a highly robust embedded controller and/or data logger.
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