Give up on Labview??

[stu22]

Hi, i've been using Labview since 1998 as a student. Then for my employers, as of lately i've had not much use for Labview (2 years not written a program). Recently I've been using PLC software packages (ladder, Structured text language) because there seems to be more "use" for this type programming. I'm just wondering if i should give up with Labview? and stick with the PLC software packages. I do enjoy programming in Labview but as they don't have free version of the software its pretty hard to keep my standard up to scratch (no practice). Can anyone give me any advice? Has anyone been in this situation?

Stu

[Alancl1]

I've always wondered what I would do if my employer stopped providing LabVIEW.  I guess I would find an old LabVIEW on ebay and code that way.  Sure the latest and gratest version is nice but the older copies are still good.

Couldn't you invest a small amount in an old version of LabVIEW and continue your training?  I wonder if that's even possible.

[tst]

If your employer does have a license, then it does permit you to install a copy at home. Technically, it's defined as being for business use, but usually it's used as a personal, non-professional copy.

Sparkfun used to have an Arduino+LV student edition bundle for $50, but it seems to have been discontinued. I think if you get a Lego Mindstorms (which I think is $250) you can get LV for free so that you can use the toolkit, although according to this page, it looks as if you can download LV 8.6 even if you don't actually have an NXT - http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4435/en

There might be other options to get it (such as helping local schools with the various robotics competition, such as FLL), which should then probably qualify you to use the SE as a teacher, or other offerings like the one from Sparkfun. Also, if you have decent connections with your local NI office, they might be willing to give you an indefinite evaluation period in order to keep you personally using the software. You could also ask to join the LV beta and use that for free. There's actually a beta going on right now - ni.com/beta.

As for whether or not it's worth it, from a professional point of view, the factors for it would be if you think you can find work using LV in the future and if you want to stay diversified in order to be a better progrmmer (i.e. the more languages you speak, the more adapted you are to thinking about problems in different ways).

[jcarmody]

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@tst wrote:

[...] Sparkfun used to have an Arduino+LV student edition bundle for $50[...] 

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https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11225

[Yamaeda]

Which version of LV is the student edition?

/Y

[tst]

The picture shows a DVD which says 2012.

[stu22]

Yeah, an older version i could probably invest in. Good idea 🙂

[stu22]

Already tried to get this from Sparkfun, not available for the UK

[tst]

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@stu22 wrote:

Already tried to get this from Sparkfun, not available for the UK

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There are sites which allow you to order things as if you were in the US, the stuff is shipped to their address in the US and then they ship it to you. I have no idea if it can apply to that, but you can try searching for those.

[.aCe.]

You could potentially use it as described in the following link.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/LabVIEW-2012-Trial-Period-Only-7-Days/m-p/2186086#M701671

As your use is only for learning purposes I imagine this must be ok with you and hopefully NI.

Just dont use 2012, it expires in 7days!