Design News for Mechanical and Design Engineers

See what the latest version of Multisim offers educators. With the release of Multisim 10.1, National Instruments continues to enhance the learning experience with education-specific features, such as measuring real-world data with instruments from the NI ELVIS II educational design and prototyping platform inside the Multisim environment for comparison.

Explore NI ELVIS, an educational design and prototyping platform based on NI LabVIEW. Take the guided tour and see the features that make NI ELVIS a leading teaching platform in areas of circuits, instrumentation, telecommunications, embedded/MCU, and controls.

The new NI ELVIS II educational design and prototyping platform, based on LabVIEW graphical system design software, is used to teach concepts in circuit design, instrumentation, controls, telecommunications, and embedded/MCU theory. Why should you use the NI ELVIS II platform in your classroom and laboratory? Download top 10 reasons that you should adapt this leading educational platform.

This technical white paper describes embedded system development for machine control using a single, automated graphical programming tool chain and Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs).

Explore the mechatronics resources from NI. View example programs for each of the mechatronics focus areas, such as mechanical or control design and simulation, sensing and signal conditioning, motors and actuators, or digital signal processing.

The use of proper lighting is often overlooked when designing a machine vision application. More robust and accurate inspections can be achieved when appropriate lighting techniques are utilized. This application note discusses considerations when selecting lighting equipment and demonstrates how to utilize the Direct Drive lighting controller feature on the NI 17xx Smart Camera with LabVIEW or Vision Builder for Automated Inspection.

The National Instruments Green Engineering Technical Library contains a wide variety of resources for environmental application development techniques, example programs, and case studies.

Significant time and money has been invested in researching the use of wireless technology for remote monitoring. Yet, significant wireless deployments are just beginning to materialize in industry. There are many advantages in eliminating cables in remote monitoring applications, but there are also many challenges. As standards such as Wi-Fi and ZigBee continue to mature for use in wireless sensor networks, those challenges are being addressed. This paper discusses how wireless technology has evolved and considerations for designing wireless remote monitoring applications.

The National Instruments "How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements" is a centralized resource for obtaining information about making common sensor and signal measurements. Each of the following sections covers the operating principle for the corresponding signal/sensor and offers guidance on how to make that measurement. The purpose of this document is to help you get to your measurements quickly.

When developing an embedded device, deciding which technology to implement as the system's primary controller is one of the first key engineering milestones. In addition to considering processor architectures, operating system capabilities, and other components, you must decide which portion of the system to design and which portion to buy off the shelf. By designing and building a custom controller, you can completely customize the end solution and optimize costs, but any design specification changes or oversights can cause lengthy and expensive delays. Alternatively, using an off-the-shelf platform increases the cost of goods sold (COGS), and you may pay for features that are not necessary for your design. Nevertheless, off-the-shelf systems typically offer a faster validation cycle and, therefore, shorter time to market. This tutorial outlines two options for developing a new controller - build or buy – and discusses the technical and financial risks associated with both.