In-Depth Technical Application Notes

"Three days of manual test, compressed into hours by running ten devices in parallel — and an architecture that kept earning for years after deployment."

How a configurable LabVIEW test executive on a SQL Server backbone turned a 3-day manual test into a multi-up parallel functional test station running up to 10 devices simultaneously. The architectural decisions — per-DUT state machines, decoupled test steps, distributed station personalities — that made it scale across the customer's growing manufacturing footprint.

"The cRIO is a black box — our C# team sends JSON, the shaker holds constant g-level. No LabVIEW knowledge required."

A Rochester-area sensor manufacturer needed closed-loop vibration control for accelerometer qualification. A headless NI CompactRIO maintains constant amplitude across frequency sweeps, exposed through a RESTful JSON API that their C# developers integrate directly.

"We essentially built an engine without the engine — simulating extreme driving conditions at microsecond resolution on a test bench."

A Tier 1 Rochester automotive supplier needed to test cam phasers under extreme driving conditions. NI CompactRIO coordinated FPGA timing, motion control, PLC hydraulics, and thermal systems — all from a recipe-driven, walk-away interface.

"Legacy test systems couldn't keep up with new product requirements. NI CompactRIO with EtherCAT replaced a would-be integration nightmare."

A Buffalo-area aerospace manufacturer needed to modernize their actuator test systems for new product lines. See how NI CompactRIO with EtherCAT solved complex communication challenges and shipped globally in 4 months.

"Production data that stays on-premises. A dashboard that reaches it from anywhere. The architecture was built to deliver both."

A Rochester automotive parts assembly plant needed live visibility into part counts across every station — without moving manufacturing data to the cloud. A C# supervisor collects EtherNet/IP data to an on-prem database; a Blazor dashboard hosted on Azure reaches it via Azure Hybrid Connection.