What's New in the LabVIEW 8.6 Mobile Module

This article provides an overview of several new features included in the LabVIEW 8.6 Mobile Module (formerly LabVIEW PDA). For a complete list of new features in addition to scheduled bug fixes, see the LabVIEW Mobile Help and the LabVIEW 8.6 Mobile Module readme.

1. Smartphone Key Navigation
2. New VIs and Functions
3. New Front Panel Controls
4. New VI-Specific Code Generation Options
5. New Project-Level Code Generation Options
6. Dynamic Tasks for Data Acquisition
7. Additional Resources

Smartphone Key Navigation

With LabVIEW Mobile 8.6 you can use the arrow keys on a smartphone to navigate the controls or indicators in Mobile VIs.  Key Navigation is enabled by setting the tab order of all front panel controls and indicators on the front panel interface.  In the screenshot below, the Mobile VI is in tabbing order edit mode. Once this VI is deployed to a Windows Mobile target, the user will be able to navigate the controls in the order that they defined. 

Figure 1. Enable key navigation by setting the tabbing order on your Mobile VI

New VIs and Functions

The following section describes new VIs that have been introduced in the LabVIEW 8.6 Mobile Module palette.

Synchronization Functions Support

The Mobile Module now supports the following synchronization functions:

Advanced Notifier Waiting functions – used to prevent dropped messages and other problems when you use the functions repeatedly with different notifiers.  Palette includes the Wait on Notification with Notifier History and Wait on Notification from Multiple with Notifier History functions.

Lossy Enqueue Element function - adds an element to a queue, which is used for communicating data between sections of a block diagram or from another VI. Unlike the Enqueue Element function, this function does not wait for room in the queue to become available. If no space is available in the queue, it removes an element from the front of the queue and discards the element to make space.

Figure 2. Advanced Notifier Waiting palette

In Place Element Structure

The LabVIEW Mobile Module now supports the In Place Element Structure. The In Place Element Structure controls how the LabVIEW compiler performs certain operations and, in some cases, increases memory and VI efficiency.

You can use the In Place Element structure when you operate on a data element within an array, cluster, variant, or waveform without requiring the LabVIEW compiler to copy data values and maintain those values in memory. You also can use this structure to operate on any data type that you want to maintain within the same data space in memory.

Figure 3. Use the In Place Element Structure to increase memory and VI efficiency

New Front Panel Controls

The multicolumn listbox control is now supported on Windows Mobile targets. The listbox can be used to give users a list of items from which to select. With the multicolumn listbox, you can display more information about each item, such as the size of the item and the date it was created.

Figure 4. Multicolumn Listbox control

New VI-Specific Code Generation Options

You can now inline subVIs into callers which can eliminate overhead and increase code optimization.  Inlining subVIs is most useful for small subVIs, VIs with many calls in a loop, or subVIs with only one call site.  Set the code generation options for your Mobile VI in the VI Properties dialog box.

Figure 5. Allow inlining to eliminate overhead and increase code optimization

New Project-Level Code Generation Options

You now can allocate constants for arrays, clusters, strings, variants, and waveforms in the Build Specification Properties dialog box.  The LabVIEW Mobile Module 8.6 provides build options that allow you to allocate memory for constants the first time they are used, outside of the containing loop, when the VI that contains the constants is called, or when a built application begins running on a target.  Memory for constants can be deallocated when the constants are no longer in use, when the VI containing the constants finishes executing, or when the built application finishes executing on the target.

Figure 6. Use the Build Specifications Properties to configure the allocation and deallocation of constants

Dynamic Tasks for Data Acquisition

With the release of DAQmx Base 3.2, data acquisition for Mobile devices can be performed using dynamic tasks.  Dynamic Tasks are created at application runtime using the NI-DAQmx Base API. Unlike static tasks, dynamic tasks eliminate the reliance on the task configuration utility, provide self-documenting source code, and reduce development time.  Since tasks are configured dynamically, a single executable can work on many different device types and configurations.  This results in fewer builds and deployments.  For a step-by-step tutorial on performing data acquisition with your Mobile device, see Performing Handheld Measurements using LabVIEW Mobile and NI USB Data Acquisition Devices.

Figure 7. Data Acquisition with DAQmx Base using a Dynamic Task

Additional Resources

For more information about the LabVIEW Mobile Module, please visit ni.com/labview/mobile.

To purchase LabVIEW Mobile, visit the product page.

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Mobile Module
Well I sure would like to use the mobile module that I paid $1000 bucks for. I purchased this and it was useful for about six months. Where are all the supported platforms? How come I can no longer deploy to "mobile" devices like i-Phones (never could), Android (never could), and Windows mobile phones? What about when Windows 8 comes out? Is NI going to require that I purchase ANOTHER application once you finally get this right?
- Pete Ballard,Frac Tech Services. peter.ballard@ftsi.com - Aug 17, 2012