Organizing the Event

2026 was DMC’s second year hosting SWE externs, but the organization itself has a storied history. For over seven decades, the organization has centered itself around giving women engineers a voice and opportunities in STEM, and today the organization has 21,000 members and 300 student sections around the country.

DMC engineers and the Recruiting team first came up with the idea to partner with SWE in 2024. A few DMC engineers participated in SWE events throughout their college careers, seeing firsthand the impact an organization like SWE can have on professional growth.

They reached out to prominent universities in the Chicago area, invited students to apply for an externship, and designed a series of hands-on activities for groups to complete over the course of two days. It’s a great opportunity for young engineers to gain hands-on experience with tools they may not see in the classroom and to solve real engineering challenges they might encounter in their careers.

DMC’s 2026 SWE Externs & Itinerary

Students in the 2026 SWE Externship came from the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The eight participants took part in the two-day program on January 6 and 7, where they were split into groups and guided through hands-on lab experiences by members of the Automation and Test & Measurement teams.

After completing the labs, the students networked with team members of the DMC Chicago office over lunch, attended a demo of our custom-built “Drop Bot”, and listened to project presentations created by DMC engineers. The event concluded with a 30-minute Q&A session with DMC CEO Frank Riordan.

Automation Lab

The Automation Lab was designed to show externs how to work in TIA Portal to program a Siemens 1212 PLC using ladder logic to control a two-way stoplight at an intersection. After reviewing the P&ID and functional specification, they structured the code by defining inputs, building a state machine for reliable operation, and setting outputs to control the lights.

They then downloaded their program to the PLC and tested system behavior using physical lights and a TP700 Comfort HMI panel, verifying that the stoplights responded correctly. The lab mirrored the planning, programming, and commissioning processes used in DMC automation projects.

Test & Measurement Lab

The Test & Measurement lab introduced the externs to industry hardware. Using an NI cDAQ with digital output and analog input modules, they sent signals and collected data from a simulated four-way intersection, applying their knowledge of signals to understand how the system responded. They began by using NI MAX to identify which signals corresponded to specific outputs, mirroring a common troubleshooting approach.

With this foundation, externs transitioned to programming in LabVIEW to build a more customized simulation of the intersection. They explored the graphical programming environment and considered ways to improve usability, gaining insight into how DMC consultants approach projects by first understanding existing systems and then enhancing them to better meet user needs.

Conclusion

The 2026 SWE externs made valuable connections with DMC engineers and gained hands-on experience with tools they may not encounter in the classroom. Just as importantly, the externship gave DMC engineers the opportunity to mentor and support the next generation as they prepare for their careers. We’re excited to continue building on this experience and look forward to hosting future SWE externships, creating even more opportunities for students to engage with our team, explore engineering in practice, and see what it’s like to be part of DMC.

The post Society of Women Engineers 2026 Externship at DMC’s Chicago Office appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Chicago’s annual Shamrock Shuffle returned this spring, and our DMC runners were back on the course. With the usual staples of green beer, shamrocks, leprechauns, and festive gear, the year’s race marked another chance for DMCers to come together and take part in one of the city’s most iconic events and, most importantly, demonstrate one of the company’s core values of having fun. 

With tens of thousands of runners participating, the pre-race meetup was important for the runners to talk race strategy, snap a team photo, and kick off this DMC tradition rooted in camaraderie. 

St. Patrick’s Day is one of those holidays where Chicago goes all in. The city dyes the river green, and large crowds brave the cold (or unseasonable warmth) to pack into their favorite pubs and gather across neighborhoods for parades. The Shamrock Shuffle is one of time‑honored St. Patrick’s Day traditions, one that looks very different today than it did when the race first kicked off in 1980.

DMC’s Shamrock Shuffle Tradition

Like the city of Chicago, DMC has its own history with the Shamrock Shuffle, dating back to 2005! (Look no further than Frank Riordan’s blog from 2009 to get a sense of this history.) Since that first year, the team has participated in one way or another—whether running together as a group, competing in friendly competition, or taking on the 4.97-mile course solo and improving their times with each stride. 

This spring, the newest generation of DMCers got into the race. Planning the event started with a Teams chat to gauge interest, and the group quickly grew. Come race day, 6 employees and 4 plus ones lined up at the starting line. 

“My mom was my +1!” remarked Rachel Hughes, who ran the Shamrock Shuffle for the first time this year. “We didn’t really train, but we wanted to see if we could go the distance at a steady pace.” Rachel’s mom isn’t a stranger to the 5-mile race, so she was the perfect running mate for pushing through to the finish line. 

Derek Tulla and Ramone Randle also ran this year. As a repeat runner, Derek set out to beat his previous time, “It’s sort of become a tradition…I ran with DMC last year and on my own the previous two years. 2026 was my second-best time.” 

Ramone also tackled the race, taking a technical approach to his training, “I trained for the race following a free guide posted on Reddit. It introduced me to uphill sprints, strides, and easy runs.” This training program allowed Ramone to drastically improve the distance he was able to run, “I was able to jog up to 7 miles when I was only running 3.5 miles at most before and I PR’d my pace!”  

Everyone this year reported that the chilly weather was perfect for running, and each pointed to a different favorite moment from race day. “The best part of the race was being able to enjoy the race with my mom and eating waffles afterward,” Rachel shared. For Ramone, it was running in the middle of some of Chicago’s major streets: “It’s not every day you can run in the middle of a downtown—it was like being in a movie or a video game.”

Suffice it to say, this year’s Shamrock Shuffle was a success, with the DMC team celebrating St. Patrick’s Day as only Chicagoans can. 

The post A Tradition Continues as DMCers Run the Shamrock Shuffle  appeared first on DMC, Inc..

This technical blog distills how and when to use FPGAs for custom measurements, the architectural patterns that actually work, and hard‑earned tips from DMC projects, plus links to DMC case studies and technical blogs you can reference as you architect your own system.

Why an FPGA for Measurement?

Determinism from microsecond to nanosecond scales
FPGA logic executes in hardware with clock‑accurate timing. On NI RIO targets, you can use single‑cycle timed loops (SCTLs) to run logic loops timed by clock signals that you specify. These loops have extremely low jitter, meaning that every iteration of the loop executes in the same amount of time. When you need very high confidence that control loops have a consistent time delta or that timestamps can be trusted, an FPGA may be the right tool.

Massive parallelism
Independent loops of logic on an FPGA execute in parallel. Unlike conventional CPUs, adding more loops to count edges, filter data, or implementing serial protocols won’t slow the other loops. This is ideal for multi‑sensor, mixed‑signal acquisition or protocol gateways.

Throughput without host bottlenecks
Stream continuous, high‑rate data using DMA FIFOs between FPGA and host, or bypass the host entirely with Peer‑to‑Peer (P2P) streaming between PXIe modules on the backplane. The FPGA can share data with oscilloscopes, waveform generators, vector signal analyzers, and more without burdening the host processor or memory.

Custom I/O and protocol timing
Implement custom digital front‑ends, encoders, counters, PWM, or proprietary serial timings that off‑the‑shelf DAQ devices don’t support. With CLIP and the IP Integration Node, you can also drop in HDL cores (VHDL/Verilog) or Xilinx IP where needed.

When to Choose an FPGA vs. PC or Real-Time (RT)?

Use this quick rule of thumb (derived from DMC best practices and NI documents):

• Choose FPGA when you require sub‑microsecond latency; hardware‑synchronous data paths; custom protocol waveforms; lossless streaming at hundreds of kS/s to GS/s; or multi‑loop parallel logic that must always meet timing.
• Choose RT (cRIO/PXI RT) when you need deterministic millisecond‑level control, supervisory logic, or file/logging tasks that coordinate with FPGA work. RT + FPGA is a common pairing.
• Choose PC when you need rich UIs, analytics, databases, or post‑processing, and timing isn’t safety‑critical. (Still pair with FPGA for preprocessing and rate reduction.)

DMC uses all three layers across industries (aerospace, electrification, advanced manufacturing), typically placing tight control and fast parallel logic on the FPGA, supervision and coordination on RT, and UX/data management on Windows. See our Real‑Time & FPGA overview and examples on DMC’s services page.

LabVIEW FPGA Essentials (what matters in practice)

Move data predictably:

Targets & clocks
Your LabVIEW project contains an FPGA target (cRIO chassis, FlexRIO, etc.) with base clocks (40 MHz onboard) and optional derived clocks. The top‑level clock governs logic outside SCTLs; SCTLs run in their selected clock domain. Use multiple clock domains to execute calculations at lower rates and fast I/O logic at higher rates.

DMA FIFOs
DMA FIFOs allow you to transfer data to and from the FPGA and host. The FIFO size can be scaled to avoid overflows. You can also create target‑scoped FIFOs to communicate between loops, but be sure to understand the different FIFO implementations.

Fixed‑point everywhere
Floating‑point math is expensive in FPGA fabric. Instead, you can do fixed‑point (FXP) math to be more hardware‑efficient. Controlled rounding and overflow modes and configurable word lengths & layouts allow you to plan for your specific algorithm. Prefer saturate where correctness is more important than speed, and wrap to optimize for resource usage. NI’s tables and guides are gold when sizing numeric types.

Bring your own HDL when needed
With CLIP (component‑level IP) or the IP Integration Node, you can insert vendor IP, legacy VHDL, or Xilinx IP cores into your own code to accelerate development.

Patterns DMC Reuses for High-Performance Measures

1. Deterministic data capture and stream
   Use the FPGA to capture signal edges with nanosecond resolution, decimate and filter the data on FPGA, stream features to RT/PC via DMA, and use the host system for logging, visualization, and analytics. We’ve applied this multi‑layered FPGA/RT/PC architecture on aerospace and defense systems with >500 channels.
2. Custom waveform synthesis at GS/s
   With FlexRIO adapter modules, we’ve generated parameterized waveforms (delay/hold/ramp) at 1.25 GS/s using an adapter like the Active Technologies AT‑1212. Generating the waveforms on FPGA allows nanosecond‑level timing, great for optical/LIDAR, RF, and pulsed power.
3. Frequency‑domain triggers & inline RF analysis
   Use P2P to stream digitizer data straight into an FPGA for windowing/FFT/mask comparison, then control backplane trigger lines to capture only events of interest. This eliminates host copies and makes “impossible” real‑time analyses practical.
4. High‑speed protocol emulation & HIL
   The FPGA implements line‑speed channel models and packet timing, while PXI instruments handle I/O—use DMA for logging and P2P for cross‑module data paths. We’ve used this architecture in demanding hardware‑in‑the‑loop modem testing.

A Pragmatic LabVIEW FPGA Architecture

Keep the FPGA’s job small
Do the minimum required at hardware speed: time‑critical I/O, data reduction, protection, and lossless streaming. Push everything else to RT/PC. (This guideline is ubiquitous in DMC training decks.)

Use SCTLs wisely
SCTLs reduce resources and latency but increase timing pressure. Pipeline long combinatorial paths, separate fast and slow clocks, and avoid SCTL‑incompatible nodes (e.g., certain I/O or waiting functions).

Engineer your clocks
Start with the 40 MHz onboard clock and derive others only as needed. On FlexRIO, additional base clocks (100 MHz/200 MHz) and DRAM clocks are available; match clocking to I/O and algorithm needs.

Get data off the FPGA early
Choose target‑scoped FIFOs for on‑fabric communication and DMA FIFOs for host transfer. If you’re in a PXI(e) system and need device‑to‑device throughput or deterministic fan‑outs, configure P2P streams with NI‑P2P.

Choose numeric types deliberately
Pre‑size FXP to prevent overflow and use truncate where quantization error is tolerable.

Development & Debug Workflow that Saves Weeks

Simulate before you compile
FPGA builds can take minutes to hours. Use Simulated I/O and the FPGA Desktop Execution Node to build testbenches with simulated time, probe internal signals, and validate algorithms long before you commit to a hardware compile.

Layered testing
It’s a best practice to take a unit → component → system verification approach. Simulate units without I/O; component‑test clocked processes; then system‑test with real I/O or emulated streams.

Compile strategy
Use the FPGA Compile Cloud Service or a compile farm to parallelize big builds and keep engineers moving. NI’s developer center outlines your options.

Hardware Selection Notes

• cRIO: Rugged, modular C‑Series I/O; great for embedded measurements and deterministic control. Default 40 MHz FPGA clock; derive carrier clocks as needed.
• FlexRIO: PXI(e) FPGA with adapter modules for GS/s converters, custom front‑ends, and P2P; multiple base clocks; DRAM; ideal for inline DSP and RF/fast transients.
• R Series / Multifunction RIO: General‑purpose FPGA with direct DIO/AIO; useful when you need custom timing on classic DAQ channels.
• Other Platforms: If nothing above hits the mark, DMC can leverage our Embedded Services Team to develop a truly custom solution: FPGA Programming

If you’re unsure, DMC often starts with a short discovery mapping I/O timing, throughput, and latency to the simplest platform that meets the spec, escalating to FlexRIO only when rates, bandwidth, or P2P drive the need.

Real-World Examples & Further Reading

Top 5 FPGA-Related DMC Case Studies

Top 5 FPGA-Related DMC Blogs

1. NI LabVIEW Part 1: Building Distributed and Synchronized FPGA Applications
   Explains synchronization techniques for multiple FPGA chassis using NI 9469 modules.
2. NI LabVIEW Part 2: Synchronized Data Acquisition across Distributed FPGA Chassis
   Discusses DMA FIFO strategies for transferring data between FPGA and RT targets in multi-chassis systems.
3. RT-301: Capabilities of Distributed LabVIEW Real-Time
   The major benefits of running a Real-Time system are determinism and robust operation.
4. FPGA Programming Overview
   A service-focused blog detailing FPGA programming capabilities, including Xilinx, Intel, and LabVIEW FPGA platforms.
5. Troubleshooting NTP with NI Hardware
   While not purely FPGA, it’s relevant for time synchronization in FPGA-based DAQ systems.

A Starter Checklist for your FPGA Project

1. Quantify timing: Required max latency, jitter, and timestamp resolution. If < 10 µs, you’re likely in FPGA territory.
2. Estimate throughput: Peak and sustained rates; raw vs. reduced features; choose DMA vs. P2P accordingly.
3. Partition the system: What must run in SCTLs? What can run in a slower clock? What can RT/PC do?
4. Pick numeric formats: Fixed‑point widths, rounding/overflow policies; verify with simulation.
5. Plan testbenches: Use Simulation (Simulated I/O) and the Desktop Execution Node before hardware compiles.
6. Design streams & buffers: Size FIFOs to cover bursts of data and verify that underruns or overflows can’t occur in worst‑case scenarios.

How DMC Can Help

DMC has delivered deterministic, high‑throughput measurement systems across avionics, RF, electrification, and advanced manufacturing—often blending FPGA inline processing with RT coordination and PC‑level analytics and UX. Our team includes NI Certified LabVIEW Architects and deep FlexRIO/cRIO experience. Explore our Real‑Time/FPGA services and reach out—we’ll help right‑size your architecture and accelerate your first build.

The post Using FPGAs for Custom High-Performance Measurements (Intro to LabVIEW FPGA) appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Over 2,600 manufacturing executives, engineers and enthusiasts will convene to learn about the newest technologies, share best practices and ideas, and be a part of advancing the future of manufacturing. The Summit event will gather Siemens and innovation thought leaders to explore how digitalization is shaping the future of manufacturing. 

DMC engineers Gina Brooks-Zak and Nikhil Holay will be in attendance. Catch them in the Digitalization Zone, where they will demonstrate the Brewing Template. The Brewing Template was developed in conjunction with Siemens to act as a lightweight brewing solution for craft brewers as well as a migration path from Braumat Compact. It includes rapid development tools such as Openness, S7 Graph, and SiVArc.

If all this talk about brewing has you feeling thirsty, stop by the Networking Reception on Wednesday, March 14 from 4-7 p.m. to see DMC's Drink Bot in action! The Drink Bot is a portable demo that DMC developed which utilizes Siemens hardware to mix drinks. Enjoy an Italian soda or adult beverage mixed using Siemens hardware.

Check out an early version of the Drink Bot below.

As a proud Siemens Solution Partner, DMC has comprehensive experience with a wide range of Siemens technologies and hundreds of successful project implementations for customers around the world. Our expertise includes recognition as Siemens S7 certified engineers, SIMATIC IT partners, Siemens MOM Expertise Alliance Center members, and Siemens WinCC Specialists.

If you're planning to attend Manufacturing in America, please stop by the Digitalization Zone and the Networking Reception to say hello!

Learn more about DMC's Siemens partnership.

The post DMC to Attend Manufacturing in America 2018 appeared first on DMC, Inc..

This is part of Microsoft’s response to the recent Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities.

Other cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services and Google Compute Platform, are affected as well and are rolling out similar responses to the vulnerabilities.

What's the Plan: Cascading Reboots

Microsoft has already deployed fixes behind the scenes for its other Azure services, but because the fix for virtual machines requires a reboot, Microsoft has sent you that notice to let you know a reboot of your Azure VM is coming.

If you have multiple VMs in a redundant configuration within an Availability Set or VM scale set, the VMs will be rebooted at different times so that your overall service remains available. Individual VMs in non-redundant configurations will experience a brief downtime.

The Meltdown vulnerability is currently only known to affect Intel processors, while Spectre is known to affect almost all modern CPUs, including processors by ARM and AMD.

In addition to cloud computing platforms, these vulnerabilities can affect desktops, laptops, and smartphones.

Stick to the Plan: Installing Security Updates

If you are running any systems outside of Azure, it is important that you install security updates to address this vulnerability as soon as possible.

For more information on these vulnerabilities, see meltdownattack.com.

The post Azure: Accelerated Maintenance to Address CPU Vulnerability Caused by Meltdown or Spectre appeared first on DMC, Inc..

Event Info

The free, one-day event is hosted by NI, in partnership with IIoT industry leaders, to see how companies are coming together to implement IIoT solutions with an open ecosystem of IT-friendly, interconnected technologies. The event aims to help attendees learn about the technologies and techniques needed to implement your own IIoT solution.

Attendees will learn about key Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies, how they interact, and how you can customize them to fit the needs of your application. By attending, you can move beyond the jargon with live demos and real-world IIoT successes and become your company’s go-to engineer for all things IIoT.

Topics

• IIoT Technology Implementation – Understand the OT and IT toolchain architecture from sensors to the cloud
• Edge Essentials – Discover techniques and technologies for acquiring and processing data at the edge
• Edge to Enterprise – Learn how to store, share, analyze, and view data in the cloud
• The Future of the IIoT – Discuss implementation options and future innovations

RSVP

RSVP today to learn from IIoT technology leaders, network with your peers, and find out how you can optimize the “things” that matter most to your business at this event.

Learn more about DMC's partnership with National Instruments. 

The post Meet DMC at Denver National Instruments IIoT Event on 12/7 appeared first on DMC, Inc..

I recently developed a .NET application at DMC that used Telerik’s WPF tools for graphing live data to the user interface.

This blog will walk you through the creation of the graph below. Refer to Using Telerik Graphing in .NET: Tips and Tricks for more best practices. 

Recommendations

• Start populating your graph with dummy data that you have hard-coded! It will make debugging much easier.

• Don’t be concerned if some of the items don’t auto-populate in the XAML viewer like you expect them to.

• When you are searching for help content, be sure to include the type of Telerik API that you are using. For example, Telerik UI for WPF.

Start Development Of A Telerik Graph

Create a RadTileViewItem which will allow you to include multiple Telerik items in one region.

You can then set up a grid which will allow you to place the Telerik items in desired sizes and locations. This example will just be implementing a RadLegend and a RadCartesianchart.

<telerik:RadTileViewItem Header="Product Graph">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="75"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

<telerik:RadTileViewItem Header="Product Graph">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
            <ColumnDefinition Width="75"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

Set Up The Framework For Your Chart

The Main content area of your graph will be contained in a RadCartesianChart.

You can specify the color that you would like to use for all of your graph items by selecting a Palette. The options for this field will not auto-populate, but you can find all available palette’s on Telerik’s website.

<telerik:RadCartesianChart x:Name="chart" Grid.Column="0" Palette="Summer">

<telerik:RadCartesianChart x:Name="chart" Grid.Column="0" Palette="Summer">

Set Up The Graph Legend

Set up a legend which binds the LegendItems and refers to an ElementName which is the name of your graph. Don’t be concerned if some of the items don’t auto-populate like you expect them to! I’d recommend running the software to determine if something you have added is hooked up properly.

<telerik:RadLegend Grid.Column="1" Margin="10" Name="Legend" Items="{Binding LegendItems, ElementName=chart}"/>

<telerik:RadLegend Grid.Column="1" Margin="10" Name="Legend" Items="{Binding LegendItems, ElementName=chart}"/>

Format Your Graph Region: Axes And Gridlines

The Cartesian Chart allows you to specify which grid lines should be shown. You also have the ability to configure X and Y grid lines appearance independently.

You will notice that the horizontal axis is configured as a CategoricalAxis, whereas your vertical axis is configured as a LinearAxis. This is intentional! A CategoricalAxis will allow you to display text (like month names instead of just month numbers) along an axis.

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.HorizontalAxis>
    <telerik:CategoricalAxis Title="Month"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.HorizontalAxis>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.VerticalAxis>
    <telerik:LinearAxis HorizontalAlignment="Right" Title="Quantity"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.VerticalAxis>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.Grid>
    <telerik:CartesianChartGrid MajorLinesVisibility="XY"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.Grid>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.HorizontalAxis>
    <telerik:CategoricalAxis Title="Month"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.HorizontalAxis>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.VerticalAxis>
    <telerik:LinearAxis HorizontalAlignment="Right" Title="Quantity"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.VerticalAxis>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.Grid>
    <telerik:CartesianChartGrid MajorLinesVisibility="XY"/>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.Grid>

Populate Your Chart With Data – Series

For this example, we will bind to a collection of data that was initialized within the View Model. This is, of course, only for the purposes of this example. The ItemsSource in this example should be bound to a single collection of ProductSales data.

The Category Binding should be the data that you want to display on the x-axis and the Value Binding should be the data that you want to display on the y-axis. Using the Legend Settings, you can also define what you would like this series to be labeled in the Legend.

You can add as many Line Series items as you like within a Cartesian Chart Series by just duplicating this piece of code. Have a lot of items? See *link to tips and tricks* which shows you another way to populate data into a chart using a Series Provider.

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.Series>
    <telerik:BarSeries ItemsSource="{Binding TestCollection}" CategoryBinding="Month" ValueBinding="Quantity">
        <telerik:BarSeries.LegendSettings>
            <telerik:SeriesLegendSettings Title="Plastic"/>
        </telerik:BarSeries.LegendSettings>
    </telerik:BarSeries>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.Series>

<telerik:RadCartesianChart.Series>
    <telerik:BarSeries ItemsSource="{Binding TestCollection}" CategoryBinding="Month" ValueBinding="Quantity">
        <telerik:BarSeries.LegendSettings>
            <telerik:SeriesLegendSettings Title="Plastic"/>
        </telerik:BarSeries.LegendSettings>
    </telerik:BarSeries>
</telerik:RadCartesianChart.Series>

Full Code 

	<grid>
		<grid.columndefinitions>
			<columndefinition width="*">
			<columndefinition width="75">
		</columndefinition></columndefinition></grid.columndefinitions>
		
		<telerik:radlegend grid.column="1" items="{Binding LegendItems, ElementName=chart}" margin="10" name="Legend">

		<telerik:radcartesianchart grid.column="0" palette="Summer" x:name="chart">

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.horizontalaxis>
				<telerik:categoricalaxis labelfitmode="Rotate" title="Month">
			</telerik:categoricalaxis></telerik:radcartesianchart.horizontalaxis>

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.verticalaxis>
				<telerik:linearaxis horizontalalignment="Right" title="Quantity">
			</telerik:linearaxis></telerik:radcartesianchart.verticalaxis>
			
			<telerik:radcartesianchart.grid>
				<telerik:cartesianchartgrid majorlinesvisibility="XY">
			</telerik:cartesianchartgrid></telerik:radcartesianchart.grid>

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.series>
				<telerik:lineseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection2}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Glass">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:lineseries>

				<telerik:lineseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection3}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Metal">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:lineseries>

				<telerik:barseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:barseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Plastic">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:barseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:barseries>
			</telerik:radcartesianchart.series>

		</telerik:radcartesianchart>
	</telerik:radlegend></grid>                                                        

	<grid>
		<grid.columndefinitions>
			<columndefinition width="*">
			<columndefinition width="75">
		</columndefinition></columndefinition></grid.columndefinitions>
		
		<telerik:radlegend grid.column="1" items="{Binding LegendItems, ElementName=chart}" margin="10" name="Legend">

		<telerik:radcartesianchart grid.column="0" palette="Summer" x:name="chart">

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.horizontalaxis>
				<telerik:categoricalaxis labelfitmode="Rotate" title="Month">
			</telerik:categoricalaxis></telerik:radcartesianchart.horizontalaxis>

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.verticalaxis>
				<telerik:linearaxis horizontalalignment="Right" title="Quantity">
			</telerik:linearaxis></telerik:radcartesianchart.verticalaxis>
			
			<telerik:radcartesianchart.grid>
				<telerik:cartesianchartgrid majorlinesvisibility="XY">
			</telerik:cartesianchartgrid></telerik:radcartesianchart.grid>

			<telerik:radcartesianchart.series>
				<telerik:lineseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection2}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Glass">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:lineseries>

				<telerik:lineseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection3}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Metal">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:lineseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:lineseries>

				<telerik:barseries categorybinding="Month" itemssource="{Binding TestCollection}" valuebinding="Quantity">
					<telerik:barseries.legendsettings>
						<telerik:serieslegendsettings title="Plastic">
					</telerik:serieslegendsettings></telerik:barseries.legendsettings>
				</telerik:barseries>
			</telerik:radcartesianchart.series>

		</telerik:radcartesianchart>
	</telerik:radlegend></grid>                                                        

Conclusion

Telerik UI for WPF has features for data management, data visualization, editors, file upload and management, interactivity & UX, layout, media, navigation, and scheduling.

Learn more about DMC’s .NET Application Development services.

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Automation professionals from all over took advantage of dozens of presentations that showcased the latest technologies and provided a sneak peek into the future of automation. If you are trying to stay on the cutting edge of automation technologies, the Siemens Automation Summit is a great annual event to attend.

Connect Event

The Solution Partner Connect Event enjoyed a great turnout with wonderful music and food at the Boca Beach Club.

DMC Denver’s John Sullivan took home the top prize at Night at the Races on the last night of the summit with a Run for the Roses. The event theme paid homage to the Kentucky Derby with Southern food and mint juleps. Attendees bargained with funny money, placing bets on their favorite horses while dressed in race-inspired attire like pastel, hats, and bow ties.

Breakout Sessions: IoT and Industrial Application Security

This year’s summit featured several breakout sessions with topics including:

• Best Practices & Novel Approaches
• Energy & Asset Management
• Maintenance & Operations
• Productivity & Efficiency
• Safety & Industrial Security

Breakout sessions about the Internet Of Things (IoT) and security of industrial applications were particularly interesting. Traditionally, industrial applications have avoided Internet connectivity. However, the release of the Siemens MindSphere signals a shift in this trend.

MindSphere is a cloud-based IoT platform designed specifically for industrial applications that, per Siemens, “lets you connect your machines and physical infrastructure to the digital world. It lets you harness big data from billions of intelligent devices, enabling you to uncover transformational insights across your entire business.”

Mindsphere gained a lot of interest from end customers as well as integrators, indicating a shift in how classic industrial applications interact with cloud-based services may be on the way.

Sessions dedicated to the security of the industrial applications provided a few highlights on how to implement a basic protection of your automation network. Hopefully, this topic will be extended at future summits to cover advanced topics.

DMC’s Siemens Drink Bot Demo

The Siemens Drink Bot is a portable demo that DMC developed which utilizes Siemens hardware to mix drinks, similar to Boston’s Drinxperiment. It was recently integrated with Cortana. The Drink Bot was a huge hit, and successfully mixed Italian sodas and adult beverages for the entire event. Whiskey seemed to be the most popular beverage among summit attendees.

Check out this video showing off the demo in action.

DMC Represents and Presents

DMC was present in full force at the summit with attendees from all six offices. Ryan Landwehr of DMC Houston was a first-time attendee as well as a first-time presenter. He particularly enjoyed attending case study presentations to see how other integrators use Siemens hardware and software to tackle different obstacles.

The summit isn’t all about presentations though. In addition to networking at the opening Connect Event, it was a unique bonding experience for DMC employees from across our six offices.

“It was great to catch up with all of the DMCers in other offices. We spent our free time sipping mojitos on the beach, coconut cocktails by the pool, and waking up early to catch the sunrise on the beach.”

– Ryan Landwehr

View DMC Presentations

Five of DMC attendees were invited to present at this year’s summit. You can check out their full presentations below:

Lightning Fast SCADA Development with Open Library for WinCC OA

By Leon Grossman

Advanced Motion Control: Using the New 1500TF Processor and Siemens LAxis Library

By Erin Meyer

Pushing Data From S7-1200 to the Cloud 

By Boris Cherkasskiy

5 Tips For Using TIA Portal V14 To Decrease Safety Development Time 

What is the Siemens Open Library, and How it Decreased Development Time for Engineers New to Siemens

By John Sullivan

Special thanks to all the 2017 Automation Summit Solution Partner Sponsors.

Learn more about DMC’s partnership with Siemens and our S7 PLC programming services.

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While working on a recent Windows application, DMC wanted to add an extra layer of security to our application by protecting our SQL CE database files with a password. Although the process of creating a “.SDF” file from an existing database is simple, there are a few additional steps that are required when adding password protection. 

After finding no good resources on this process anywhere on the internet, I decided to document the process here.

This walkthrough will use the SQL Server Compact Toolbox for Runtime 4.0 which you can download.

Step 1: Create an empty, password protected .SDF file

Right click on No SQL Compact Data Connections Found and select Add SQL Server Compact 4.0 Connection…

A small window will pop up where you will enter your desired password. After your password has been entered, click Create at the top of the window where you will name your new .SDF file. 

Finally, click Close at the bottom of the window in order for your new empty .SDF to be created.

Your password protected .SDF file will now appear on the left-hand side in the main window of the toolbox. 

Step 2: Export your existing SQL Server Database to a .SQLCE file.

Right click on SQL Server Compact Data Connections and select Script SQL Server Database Schema and Data…

A window will popup that requires you to enter information to connect to your existing SQL Server DB. 

Enter the server name and select the database name from the drop-down menu. 

Finally, click Ok and name your new .SQLCE file. 

In the next popup, select the tables from your existing database which you want to export by clicking the appropriate check boxes. This will vary based on your application. 

Step 3: Move the exported data into your new password protected SDF.

Next, right-click on your new password protected DB that has been created on the left side of the toolbox and select Open SQL Editor”. 

An editor will open up on the main part of the screen.

Select Open and navigate to the location of the .SQLCE file you just created.

Once this step is completed, you will see text commands opened in the main window. 

Click Execute and wait for this operation to complete. Once completed, you will be able to verify the operation was successful by expanding Tables in the left-hand side tree view and checking that the correct tables have been added.

SQL Server Database has now successfully been moved into a password protected .SDF file!

As a final note, when using this in your Windows application you must enter the .SDF’s password. Microsoft provides information about how to accomplish this. 

Learn more about DMC’s Custom Software & Hardware development services. 

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“UGH, these Windows system sounds are so bland”

And then wished you could change them to something better, and do it to all your company computers, but didn’t want to go through the hassle of clicking through Windows system settings while explaining to your coworkers what you’re doing to their computer?

ME TOO!

That’s why I made an executable that does all this with a double click. Below is how you can do it, too:

1. Find the sound clips you want to use for system sounds, and convert them to a .wav file format. There are a bunch of free sites online that do this for you.
2. Trim down the sound clips using any audio editor. I used Audacity. I recommend sounds clips no longer than 3 seconds, but there’s nothing stopping you from having the full Kanye album play whenever you open a file/get an email/empty the recycle bin.
3. Create a text file in the same folder that has your sound clips. Give it whatever name you want, but change the file extension to .bat. If you can’t see the file extension, you’ll have to enable viewing system file extensions.
4. Open a text editor and open this file in the text editor. I like to use Notepad++.
5. What you have now is a .bat file that you can write code in and it will execute that code whenever it’s double clicked, we’ll put in some code that changes system sounds.
6. Copy and paste the code below into your bat file, and change the file names to items that you have.

REM The line of code below plays a sound whenever this script runs. Not necessary, but I like it
Start powershell -WindowStyle hidden -c (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer “aheh.wav”).PlaySync();
REM    Start powershell                Starts a powershell window that will run an audio player, just 
REM -WindowStyle hidden             Makes the window that this code runs in hidden from view
REM -c                                
REM (New-Object Media.SoundPlayer     Creates a new object that’s a sound player 
REM “aheh.wav”).PlaySync();            Specifies the sound clip “aheh.wav” and tell our sound player to play it

REM The line of code below makes a file path to store the sounds in, only if it doesn’t already exist
if not exist “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds” mkdir “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds” 
REM if not exist “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds”            Checks if the file location exists
REM This copies the local .exe files to the new file path in the music folder.

REM The next few lines of code copy local files “uh.wav” and “oo.wav” to the new file path we made on earlier line
echo f | xcopy /f “%~dp0\uh.wav” “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds”
echo f | xcopy /f “%~dp0\oo.wav” “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds” 
REM echo f         This bypasses having a user answer yes/no/all if asked to overwrite existing files
REM xcopy          Copies files and directories, including subdirectories.
REM /f             displays full source and destination file names when copying
REM “%~dp0        This gets the file path of the folder the file is running in

REM This changes the system sounds to the new files
REM It gets into the registry, adds a new scheme, and changes two of the sounds to the sounds we just made
@reg add “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes”                                             /t REG_SZ /d “.KanyeTest”  /f
@reg add “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\.Default\.Current”             /t REG_SZ /d “”       /f
@reg add “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\DeviceConnect\.Current”        /t REG_SZ /d “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds\uh.wav”       /f
@reg add “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps\.Default\DeviceDisconnect\.Current”      /t REG_SZ /d “C:\WindowsKanyeSounds\oo.wav”       /f
REM @reg add “item”        this goes to the item in the registry 
REM /t                     this parameter specifies the type for the registry entry
REM REG_SZ                this the registry type, a null-terminated string
REM /d                  this parameter specifies the data for the new registry entry        
REM /f                    this adds the registry entry without prompting for confirmation.

REM waits for 3sec so Kanye laughs when the code completes
REM this was a quick fix for something I didn’t want to troubleshoot
TIMEOUT 3

7. Save the file and double click to run it.

You’re free to drag & drop all these files onto a USB stick and run whenever you want. BUT. You can streamline the process even more by converting this .bat file into an .exe file. I used this free .bat to .exe file converter and had the settings so it ran as an invisible application in a temporary directory and deleted temporary files at exit. I had to also click the “include” tab and include the sound files I was using. 

If you want to change system sound settings back to defaults, type “change system sounds” in the Windows search bar, and change the Sound Scheme from (modified) to Windows Default.

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