LabVIEW for Linux on single board computers

[ealltech]

Greetings fellow wire workers. Has anybody considered using one of the SBCs listed here as a target for their LabVIEW programs ? Has anyone successfully done it ? For example something like the Beaglebone SBC
The Beagleboard-xM for example has been demonstrated using Angstrom Linux, Fedora, Ubuntu, Gentoo andMaemo Linux distributions.

Is there a moderate chance that LabVIEW for Linux would be able to work with the standard inclusion of peripherals such as Ethernet , USB, USB-OTG, RS-232, MicroSD/MMC card slot ? I expect to need to write my own drivers for other peripherals such as I2C, SPI and the general purpose I/O lines etc.

We are seriously entertaining the idea and unless somebody can point out some really difficult problems we might encounter, we plan to buy a couple to evaluate their suitability.

Rgds

Alex Paul

[jeanlucpicard]

As far as I know, you cannot use LabVIEW on ARM architecture, that's why there is no native version for Raspberry Pi and all the similar stuff.

However, you have LINX 3.0 which allows deploying some code to Beaglebones and Raspberry Pis, but as far as I know, you still need a machine running proper LabVIEW.

[Sam_Sharp]

---

@jeanlucpicard wrote:

As far as I know, you cannot use LabVIEW on ARM architecture, that's why there is no native version for Raspberry Pi and all the similar stuff.

However, you have LINX 3.0 which allows deploying some code to Beaglebones and Raspberry Pis, but as far as I know, you still need a machine running proper LabVIEW.

---

That's not true. The LINX 3.0 toolkit for RPi and Beaglebone deploys code to the target just like a regular RT target like a cRIO / sbRIO etc. (except without a LabVIEW UI that some cRIOs have, and non-deterministic).

Also note that the license for LINX 3.0 for these targets is stricly non-commercial use only.

It was pretty easy to have a play around with it - I wrote an article about it here: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-47565

[jeanlucpicard]

then it seems I learned something new, and this feature of LINX 3 seems kinda cool 🙂

So actually does this mean that you deploy the code and then it will run on its own without any external full-featured LabVIEW connection, only without a front panel?

[billko]

That's exactly what it means.  🙂

[Graperain]

LabVIEW sales would increase generously if NI was to release LabVIEW which targets ARM based SBCs/SOMs running say Linux.  NI doesn't do this because they prefer to make exorbitant (per unit) profits from their own embedded H/W sales.   Embedded computing is here to stay ond growing exponentially.  NI recognise the need to give more embedded solutions in their roadmap, but fall short in a major way by choosing not to support (in any serious way) any embedded H/W platform other than their own.

[ealltech]

Thanks for all the info guys!

[rolfk]

---

@Graperain wrote:

LabVIEW sales would increase generously if NI was to release LabVIEW which targets ARM based SBCs/SOMs running say Linux.  NI doesn't do this because they prefer to make exorbitant (per unit) profits from their own embedded H/W sales.   Embedded computing is here to stay ond growing exponentially.  NI recognise the need to give more embedded solutions in their roadmap, but fall short in a major way by choosing not to support (in any serious way) any embedded H/W platform other than their own.

---

That math doesn't exactly work if you count for amounts of dollars. Nobody using a 35$ Raspi computer is going to consider buying a $2000 software license to program his gadget. They more likely find $50 already above the tolerable price limit. So while the number of "sold" LabVIEW licenses would increase, the amount of sales ($$$$$$) would not change much. The incentive to give away LabVIEW for almost nothing and cannabilize its own hardware sales too, is indeed very small. The only reason they would want to do that is if they want to brag that "10 billion devices running LabVIEW" and 0 $ earned from that, but lots of extra support issues.

It simply doesn't make any sense commercially!