Best way to learn RIO as a self-interest project

[dstubbs95]

Hi Everyone,

I have been doing a lot of LabVIEW programming as part of my lab duties during graduate school and have been getting more interested in learning how to use a FPGA. My lab doesn't have any need for an FPGA/RIO system, so this would really just be a personal interest project for my self. I just enjoy tinkering with electronics stuff such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc. I have noticed that the myRIO seems to be the cheapest way to get into an FPGA board with LabVIEW support. I was wondering if you think it would be reasonable to buy a used myRIO off of e-Bay or similar for the sake of tinkering with. They are kind of expensive, usually $400 or so on e-Bay, but I am not sure if there is somewhere to get them for cheaper. I was also wondering what the software situation was like? I know the full LabVIEW FPGA development suite is quite expensive. But it seems like the myRIO has its own software bundle designed to work just with it? Is that software free to use with a myRIO or would I be needing to purchase and expensive software license? For example, if I buy one of the used myRIOs off of e-Bay, would I then be able to download and use the software bundle from NI? Thanks in advance!

[Bob_Schor · Accepted solution]

I'm a fan of the myRIO.  As you noticed, it has a lot of advanced features, including multiple A/D, D/A, and DIO ports, an FPGA, and TCP/IP (either through the USB port or WiFi, although it is a little tricky to set up).

The software you need for the myRIO is the LabVIEW myRIO Software Toolkit, which comes in a number of editions.  The most recent are for LabVIEW 2019 and LabVIEW 2021, which work (respectively, and only) with LabVIEW 2019 (32-bit) and LabVIEW 2021 (32-bit).  There are also earlier versions, but I don't know which are still available.  I'm also unsure what license you need to be able to download and install them (a Full license should work).

When you install LabVIEW, you will want to be sure to include LabVIEW Real-Time, LabVIEW FPGA (Vivado), and CompactRIO Driver.

Bob Schor