Cost Benefit Analysis for Using PXI Configuration or Vendor DMMs

[Old.mainframe.programmer]

Good morning LabView community.  We are a small startup that has requirements to automate QA testing using DMM functions, illumination and chromaticity measurements and thermal measurements.  After reviewing the capabilities of the PXI and PXIe platforms we are trying to cobble together a CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) for comparision purposes between PXI and using LabView connected to our desired devices.  So the question is...

Has anyone out there in LabView world recently prepared a CBA to prove/disprove the value of the PXI configuration as compares to wiring LabView directly tot he meters we need to test/QA with?

Thank you..

[Norbert_B]

You should contact your local NI sales rep regarding that question.

The questions you have to answer for yourself before getting to actual numbers:

• How to you calculate/price regarding development time? How much time do you save when using PXI vs. esisting boxed instruments?
• What about execution speed/reliability of the application?
• What about less space requirement? What is a square meter production floor worth?
• What about potential synchronization tasks (trigger/clock/...)? Is that an option for future modifications or is it very unlikely to occur?
• Switching: Speed vs. Power vs. "Easy to use"?
• Overall power consumption of instruments? Grounding issues?

This is just a small list for brainstorming. You can come up with many additional, reasonable questions....

Norbert

[Old.mainframe.programmer]

Thank you for the insight Norbert.  We will follow your train of thought and incorporate that criteria into our analysis.  While we continue refine our requirements and examine what our end-state will probably look like for our test/QA stations.

Have a great day...