National Instruments Expands the NI
Wireless Sensor Network Platform
New WSN Gateway and Measurement Node Extend Communication and
Measurement Capabilities
NEWS RELEASE March 1, 2011 National Instruments today
announced two new products that extend the communication and
measurement capabilities of the NI wireless
sensor network (WSN) platform. The new NI 9792 is a programmable WSN gateway
that can communicate with NI WSN measurement nodes as well as other
hardware through a variety of open communication standards. The
gateway combines an NI LabVIEW Real-Time controller and an
integrated WSN radio so that LabVIEW Real-Time applications can run
locally on the gateway to aggregate data from NI WSN devices,
making the NI 9792 ideal for embedded, wireless data-logging
applications. Additionally, the new NI WSN-3226 voltage/resistance
temperature detector (RTD) combination node extends the measurement
capabilities of the NI WSN platform to include support for
resistance-based measurements such as RTDs and potentiometers and
provides engineers and scientists the ability to combine voltage
and temperature measurements on a single NI WSN device.
The NI 9792 gateway, which is programmable with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module for stand-alone
operation, features a high-performance 533 MHz processor and 2 GB
of onboard storage for embedded data-logging applications. The new
gateway also features integrated Web (HTTP) and file (FTP) servers,
which makes it possible for remote access to measurement data from
thin client devices such as smartphones and mobile computers. The
NI 9792 includes an RS232 serial port and dual Ethernet ports to
provide flexible connectivity to other devices such as
enterprise-level networks or wired I/O systems. With this
flexibility, engineers and scientists can create a complete wired
and wireless measurement solution to meet various application
needs.
The new WSN-3226 measurement node adds resistance-based
measurements to the NI WSN platform and features four analog input
channels that can be configured on a per-channel basis for
±10 V measurements or resistive measurements. The new
measurement node provides engineers and scientists the flexibility
to choose between high-speed and high-resolution analog input modes
on the device, optimizing the power and performance trade-offs for
their applications. The WSN-3226 also features two bidirectional
digital channels that can be configured on a per-channel basis for
input, sinking output or sourcing output. Additionally, the
measurement node can be powered by four AA batteries, with an
operational lifetime of up to three years, or externally powered
with a 5 to 30 V supply, which offers improved efficiency for
energy harvesting applications.
Using the LabVIEW WSN Module Pioneer, engineers
and scientists can customize the behavior of the WSN-3226 by adding
intelligence to extend battery life, increase analog and digital
input performance, perform local control, analysis and data
reduction and interface with custom sensors. Additionally, the
latest version of NI WSN software, NI WSN 1.2, provides support for
WSN-3226, along with other features including faster firmware
updates, more accurate data timestamping and automatic I/O variable
deployment. The software also delivers Web-based configuration of
the NI 9792 gateway, eliminating the need for application software
to configure and set up a WSN.
NI WSN products are ideal for long-term data logging and remote
monitoring in the following applications:
Environmental monitoring
Energy monitoring
Building monitoring
Structural health monitoring
Distributed temperature monitoring
Transportation
Industrial monitoring
Readers can visit www.ni.com/wsn to learn more about the
new products and the NI WSN platform as well as view the webcast Creating Intelligent WSN Networks to
learn how to build an entire WSN system with LabVIEW.
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