Wireless and Ethernet Devices Offer Easy-to-Use, High-Performance Remote Measurements

Wireless and Ethernet Devices Offer Easy-to-Use, High-Performance Remote Measurements

NEWS RELEASE – Aug. 5, 2008 – National Instruments today announced 10 new Wi-Fi and Ethernet data acquisition (DAQ) devices, extending the world-trusted NI measurement hardware and software platform to wireless remote monitoring applications. The new wireless and Ethernet DAQ devices include built-in signal conditioning and direct sensor connectivity for electrical, physical, mechanical and acoustic signals.

Engineers and scientists can combine NI Wi-Fi DAQ with the NI LabVIEW software platform to meet their wireless structural diagnostic, environmental and machine condition monitoring application needs by reducing cabling costs and increasing flexibility without compromising performance.

“National Instruments data acquisition software for LabVIEW, ANSI C/C++ and Visual Basic .NET is used to acquire data from millions of sensors all over the world,” said John Hanks, vice president of data acquisition and control at National Instruments. “Now with NI Wi-Fi DAQ hardware, developers can add wireless sensor capabilities to new and existing measurement applications without having to learn new software.”

Using the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless networks, the new NI Wi-Fi DAQ devices stream data on each channel at more than 50 kS/s with 24 bits of resolution. Wi-Fi DAQ devices deliver measurement data to a host PC instantaneously for real-time viewing and in-line analysis of dynamic sensor signals. In addition, built-in advanced network authentication methods and 128-bit AES encryption offer the highest commercially available network security and meet the standards defined for use of wireless networks in U.S. government facilities by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Wireless technology extends NI data acquisition hardware and software technology to new distributed and portable measurement applications where wiring is difficult or cost-prohibitive. The flexibility of LabVIEW graphical programming and the ubiquity of Wi-Fi network infrastructure make it easy to incorporate wireless sensor measurements into new or existing PC-based measurement or control systems. For more information on the devices, see the chart below.

Module Signal Channels Rate Connectivity

WLS-9211

ENET-9211 Thermocouple,

24-bit 4 14 S/s Screw terminal

WLS-9215

ENET-9215 Simultaneous sampling, 16-bit 4 100 kS/s/ch Screw terminal or BNC

WLS-9219

ENET-9219 Universal

(11 modes) 4 100 S/s/ch Spring terminal

WLS-9234

ENET-9234 IEPE (accelerometer and microphone), 24-bit 4 51.2 kS/s/ch BNC

WLS-9237

ENET-9237 Bridge completion, 24-bit 4 50 kS/s/ch RJ50

The Wi-Fi and Ethernet DAQ devices are shipped with NI-DAQmx driver software and NI LabVIEW SignalExpress LE, an interactive data-logging software for quickly acquiring, analyzing and presenting data with no programming required. The NI-DAQmx driver delivers time-saving features such as the configuration-based NI DAQ Assistant with code generation for both LabVIEW and text-based languages; more than 3,000 measurement examples; device simulation; connection diagrams; and compatibility with LabVIEW, ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET and Visual Basic 6.0.

For more information on the new Wi-Fi and Ethernet devices, visit www.ni.com/wifi.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 25,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 10 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 4,800 employees and direct operations in nearly 40 countries. For the past nine years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America.

Pricing and Contact Information Wi-Fi devices priced* from $699; €629; ¥81,000 Contact Sales: www.ni.com/contact

Ethernet devices priced* from $599; €549; ¥70,000 E-mail: info@ni.com

Web: www.ni.com/wifi

*All prices are subject to change without notice.