12-Inch HMI for NI's LabVIEW Touch Panel Module

17th January 2007

ES Admin

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National Instruments has announced the release of the NI TPC-2012. The new 12in touch panel computer works with the National Instruments LabVIEW 8.20 Touch Panel Module, giving control and design engineers another option for deploying the LabVIEW graphical development environment on Windows CE HMI devices for machine control, embedded control and distributed data acquisition systems.

LabVIEW offers a single graphical development environment in which system designers can easily create touch panel applications in the same environment used for logic programming. They can develop control algorithms, embed logic on FPGAs, build the accompanying HMI and then deploy to the TPC-2012, all using LabVIEW 8.20.

Additionally, the NI LabVIEW 8.20 Touch Panel Module works with LabVIEW shared variables, making it even easier to share data between real-time controllers – such as PXI and NI Compact FieldPoint, CompactRIO and Compact Vision System – and Windows CE devices, including the TPC-2012 and HMIs from companies such as Advantech, a Windows CE hardware provider. System designers can use the built-in Modbus serial, Modbus TCP/IP and Modbus ASCII communication in LabVIEW to communicate between third-party HMIs and Modbus hardware.

“LabVIEW 8.20 provides an ideal environment for developing both HMIs and control or data acquisition logic for programmable automation controllers,” said Mike Berryman, Advantech Market Development Manager. “The new LabVIEW Touch Panel Module allows Advantech customers using our Windows CE-based industrial platforms to create HMIs with the ease of use of LabVIEW.”

The NI LabVIEW 8.20 Touch Panel Module also works with the NI TPC-2006 HMI. The TPC-2006 offers a compact and lower-cost option for HMI display, while the new TPC-2012 features a 12.1-inch SVGA TFT LCD screen, 256 MB RAM, 128 MB CompactFlash card and 500 MHz of graphics processing power.

With both HMI devices, system designers can add native LabVIEW controls, graphs and other displays to their HMI applications for increased control and measurement capabilities, and they do not need to employ multiple logic and HMI software packages to do so. For the new TPC-2012, the TPC-2006 and third-party Windows CE HMIs, the LabVIEW Touch Panel Module reduces development time and cost by providing a single integrated, open development environment.