Connecting LabVIEW to Profinet, Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT and other Real-Time Ethernet Fieldbusses

Interfaces communicating with diverse fieldbuses are crucial for the integration of LabVIEW in modern networked production.

While the capabilities of LabVIEW and NI hardware in the processing of analog signals are undisputed, the situation is different when it comes to connecting Real-Time Ethernet buses. Numerous forum discussions and questions from our customers prove this.

For example, only third-party hardware is available for the cRIO platform, which is not only expensive but also difficult to handle. At PC level, there is no connection from Industrial Ethernet to LabVIEW at all.

The solution: Hilscher’s cifX family of Real-Time Ethernet cards and a LabVIEW library by müller+krahmer, which not only exchange data with the card, but also perform the necessary data type conversions. Thanks to cifX, most Real-Time Ethernet buses are available, such as Profinet, Ethernet/IP, EtherCAT, SERCOS III and others. And whether the LabVIEW application is the master or slave in the network can also be determined by the cifX firmware.

It is even possible to switch on-the-fly between the buses if, for example, the bus changes from one DUT to the next on a test bench. In addition to our driver interface in LabVIEW, we have also developed an interface for automatic configuration. This transfers the configuration within seconds, communication is restarted and the bus is running.