Hardware Front Panel

[SteveChandler]

I would really like to see a user configurable hardware front panel that integrates with LabVIEW. The panel would connect to a computer via USB. National Instruments could sell different hardware controls such as pushbuttons, LED's, switches, LCD panels for graphs, rotory encoded switches, slide switches and potentiometers, LCD indicators for text and numbers, etc.

LabVIEW would discover which panels are connected and which hardware controls are available in those panels. The user could then drop them as terminals on the block diagram and use them as normal.

Another option for the panel could be an embedded computer running LabVIEW so that the whole thing can be stand alone.

[Intaris]

Is do-able as a USB HID but I wonder if there's a big enough market.....

I've had the same idea in the past and was close to implementing something once..

[SteveChandler]

I also thought of doing this but there just is not enough time. You're right there may not be much of a market.

But maybe someone develops a really cool LabVIEW FPGA based thing with this USB panel as a prototype. Once they get it to where it is done they order a thousand of them from National Instruments. This would be the panel minus the plug in and unplug capability of the modules.

[JackDunaway]

You may want to consider submitting this Idea to the DAQ Idea Exchange, which may be a higher-traffic region for the hardware guys.

[G-Money]

I am going to move this idea to the DAQ Idea Exchange so that the DAQ R&D team can view it.