The concept of LabVIEW Object Oriented Programming (LVOOP) has been around for a number of years now, but has consistently been one of those areas that seemed to have to high of a learning curve to justify learning “just because”. Luckily, in a recent project I managed to get the green light for implementing an object oriented (OO) solution. For me the biggest appeal for OO programmi... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Here are some simple guidelines for troubleshooting and working with Analog IO.  Although these guidelines are intended to help you think about the process of troubleshooting, this process will surely catch any specific issues you encounter.

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Recently I worked on a project where I needed to import test data from a chemical process contained in text files into a MS SQL Server database. I was about to start a C# .NET project to do this task, but I thought there has to be a quicker and easier way to do this. That is how I stumbled upon SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS can do exactly what I needed. This tool is a component incl... [Read the rest of this blog...]

The message box, in Windows Forms and WPF, is a useful, quick-and-dirty way to send an alert, display an error, and get simple input from the user.  The message box is, however, modal.

This blog article discusses using asynchronous programming to create a message box that will not block the calling thread.

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DMC led a SharePoint Dashboard Workshop at the Alliance for Illinois Manufacturing executive lunch briefing on March 4, 2010 at the Alliance headquarters.  The event's topic, Use Technology You Already Own to Operate Efficiently and Competitively, drew a full-house of thirty business leaders. Participants were treated to a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and dashboard workshop... [Read the rest of this blog...]

We are frequently asked to work on PLC systems for clients that we did not develop.  The job could be troubleshooting an issue or adding a new feature to the system.  Working with unfamiliar code has its own unique challenges, although we take pride in our ability to do so.  Here are some things you should keep in mind when asking an integrator or even your own internal maintenance ... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Many of the LabVIEW applications that DMC develops are based on our internally developed state machine architecture. This architecture has a proven record of allowing us to create flexible, robust, and easy to maintain applications. One of our clients has a large, multi-PC system built upon this platform which has been in use for a period of years. The architecture allowed several addit... [Read the rest of this blog...]

For those of us who appreciate and harness the power of indirect addressing in Siemens S7 300 and 400 level PLCs, we were sad to hear that this functionality was not supported in the same way for the new Step 7 Basic software for S7-1200 PLCs.  As of Service Pack 2 for Step 7 Basic 10.5, however, Siemens has added array indexing functions that get you closer to indir... [Read the rest of this blog...]

 What is a Real-Time Operating System? Known as an RTOS, the Real-Time Operating System is the heart of any Real-Time Solution.  An RTOS is capable of executing programs with extremely accurate timing creating a very deterministic system.  This key benefit is often highly desired for many scientific, engineering, and industrial automation projects. Real Time Operating Systems can ... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Team DMC has once again made a strong showing at a Chicago area athletic event. As a team, we placed 8th overall out of nearly 150 teams. Several of us even improved our times drastically from last year's competition. DMC is always looking to ignite new athletic rivalries with other Chicago companies. If your company is interested in competing at an upcoming Chicago event, please get in touch wit... [Read the rest of this blog...]

DMC was happy to be a part of the FIRST FTC (First Tech Challenge) high school robot competition here in Chicago.   John Sullivan and myself with Chris Weaver of NI braved the fierce field of competition to assist as, you guessed it, Software Inspectors.  Our role was to ensure the science and technology-interested high schoolers had done their homework and had a functional, u... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Many consumers, including myself, have tapped into the ever-growing functionality of mobile internet.  Many people leverage this infrastructure for their mobile phone.  Others are beginning to use WiMAX connections for their PCs.  Not to be out-done, PLCs are also capable of communicating through wireless data plans.

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James M. Hussey, CEO of one of our customers, NanoInk, Inc. was interviewed as part of the panel on WGN Radio's Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg on the topic of Nanotechnology.  DMC is proud to play a small part in the developing the amazing technologies that companies like NanoInk are pioneering. A 23 minute clip of the program is available here.

If you don't have in-house personnel proficient in LabVIEW development, how do you know if your integrator is proficient?  You could take our word for it, but why not go to an unbiased source.

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DMC held our periodic all-day off-site company meeting on February 8th at Melrose Park Grand Prix. Business topics covered included: Checklists - motivated by the book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande.  A simplified synopsis of the book is that the use of checklists prevents mistakes and frees the mind by removing the focus on determinin... [Read the rest of this blog...]

DMC has been involved in quite a few battery testing projects lately.  We thought it would be helpful to assemble a compilation of some of the general things we have learned into a new white paper.... "Electric Vehicle Battery Pack Testing in a Manufacturing Environment" If you are interested in the automotive battery packs used in electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), a... [Read the rest of this blog...]

I am happy to announce that I have recently completed the requirements to officially become an International Society of Automation (ISA) Certified Automation Professional (ISA CAP).  Per ISA, Certified Automation Professionals are responsible for the direction, definition, design, development/application, deployment, documentation, and support of systems, software, and equipment used in... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Sometimes projects, even very large ones, have straight-forward solution paths with few unknowns. Other times a project is closer to the technological frontier where the solution is not obvious, or may not exist with the current technology. Many of these projects offer high economic return for our customers when successful. With such projects it often does not make sense to move forward with the... [Read the rest of this blog...]

DMC and the Alliance for Illinois Manufacturing are sponsoring a complimentary executive lunch briefing on March 4, 2010.  The event’s topic, Use Technology You Already Own to Operate Efficiently and Competitively, will focus on using Microsoft SharePoint to make better decisions by tracking key performance indicators, cut costs by operating more efficiently and increase innovation by enablin... [Read the rest of this blog...]

Last Wednesday DMC hosted Karan Talati, a freshman Mechanical Engineering major, as a part of the University of Illinois Job Shadowing program. The program is designed for freshman or sophomore engineering students to spend a day with an engineering company to learn about a specific industry. Throughout the day, Karan rotated spending time with many different engineers learning about the projects ... [Read the rest of this blog...]