National Instruments 779999-01 CompactRIO Controller

The National Instruments 779999-01 is a member of the cRIO-9074 model range, which is intended for sophisticated industrial control and monitoring applications. Featuring a 400 MHz real-time processor, 128 MB of DRAM, and 256 MB of nonvolatile storage, this controller is small, sturdy, and fanless. It can also be used for a range of hard industrial jobs because it has an inbuilt 2M gate FPGA.

The functions of an industrial real-time controller and a reconfigurable FPGA chassis are combined in this CompactRIO controller. Up to eight NI C Series I/O modules can be seamlessly integrated with the eight-slot chassis. Many inputs and outputs are supported by these modules, such as digital I/O, high-voltage/current relays, thermocouples, accelerometers, RTDs, strain gauges, and voltage and current inputs. Using integrated communication functions, the user-defined FPGA circuitry in the chassis controls each I/O module and sends data to the controller via a local PCI bus.

The broad networking possibilities of the 779999-01 CompactRIO Controller are impressive. It is equipped with two IEEE 802.3 compliant 10/100 Mbps Ethernet ports. Additional CompactRIO systems or other Ethernet-based devices can be connected to these ports for increased I/O capacity and to enable programmable communication via a network. Network configuration flexibility is ensured by the maximum cabling distance of 100 meters for every segment. An RS-232 serial port with a maximum baud rate of 115,200 bps is also included with the controller; it supports several configurations of data bits, stop bits, parity, and flow control option.