Deterministic Ethernet Expansion Chassis

Overview and Distributed Applications
The NI 9144 expansion chassis adds deterministic Ethernet I/O to your NI CompactRIO or NI programmable automation controller (PAC) system.
This 8-slot rugged chassis for NI C Series modules communicates deterministically over an open, real-time Ethernet protocol called EtherCAT. You can use CompactRIO controllers or real-time PXI systems with an NI PXI-8231/8232 gigabit Ethernet interface as the master controller for the distributed system. Then you can daisy chain multiple NI 9144 slave chassis from the master controller to expand time-critical applications.
The NI 9144 is an industrial-grade chassis designed for extreme ruggedness, reliability, and a wide -40 to 70 °C operating range. To customize your measurement and control system, select from more than 30 analog and digital C Series modules. Plus, you can take advantage of the software configuration and NI LabVIEW programming to make adding real-time expansion I/O easy.

Software
With the introduction of the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 8.6, you can easily add deterministic expansion I/O to a graphical programming environment. The out-of-box experience for the NI 9144 simply involves installing the NI-Industrial Communications for EtherCAT driver on the NI master controller. Then LabVIEW automatically recognizes all connected slaves and their modules. LabVIEW also provides I/O variables, which offer instant access to the physical I/O values using a simple drag-anddrop motion. With I/O forcing and live test panels, I/O variables can be used to monitor system performance and implement advanced troubleshooting.

C Series Modules
As a modular expansion system, the NI 9144 chassis provides the flexibility to incorporate more measurement types and channels by simply plugging in additional I/O modules. Plus, attaching another expansion chassis adds even more module slots for your system. Not only are all I/O modules automatically synchronized in each chassis, but all the expansion chassis in the network are synchronized with each other as well.
All C Series modules for single-point analog and digital I/O are supported, giving you direct connectivity with a wide variety of sensors and actuators. Each module contains built-in signal conditioning and isolation for extended voltage ranges and industrial signal types, such as thermocouples, resistance, voltage, current, and strain. Like the NI 9144 chassis, all modules are UL tested and operate in industrial temperature and shock environments. Plus, C Series I/O modules are reusable in other NI hardware platforms, such as embedded CompactRIO, NI CompactDAQ for USB, and Wi-Fi data acquisition.

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