WUELUG17 was once again hosted by a regional LabVIEWfriends company. Despite our concerns, the last WUELUG of 2022 was able to take place in person. This time we had the pleasure of visiting WEBER GmbH.
Our Host
WEBER GmbH is an automation company based in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. For over 40 they have been innovators in the fields of engineering, automation and testing. Currently, Industry 4.0 is their primary focus, working with varied clients ranging from medical technology to the automotive industry. LabVIEW is of course perfectly suited for all of these applications. Thanks again to the entire company and especially Achim for the tour through the labs and the yummy snacks.
Content
dataTec
After the lab visit, Kevin from dataTec showed us the part of the LabVIEW world, that we at HSE usually never see personally – NI hardware distribution. We are mostly buyers and users of NI software, so this peek behind the curtains was fascinating indeed. dataTec is the largest specialist distributor for measurement and testing technology in Germany.
It has become increasingly difficult for NI to ensure the balancing act between a large number of customers (global) and individual customer requirements. The company has therefore decided to implement a strategy change in sales. With the aim that customers can be looked after better and more individually, sales have been outsourced to distributors throughout Europe. In February 2021, dataTec has been awarded the contract for the DACH region. More background information can be found on dataTec’s website.
Advent of Code
Stefan Lemmens then introduced us to Advent of Code. This initiative pits teams against each over with fiendishly clever daily code puzzles for the entire advent time. Stefan started a LabVIEW group, so we can all practice our basics, come up with elegant solutions and improve our general problem-solving and speed skills. It’s not too late, come join us!
Discussions
Without definitive agenda, the remainder of the meeting was spent with quite heated discussions about reuse and packaging (“to package or not to package”), object orientation in LabVIEW and a few other minor topics. Time flew – as always when we’re enjoying ourselves – and way too soon was it time to wrap up and call it a day.
WUELUG18
Our next meetup is planned for April, with a few ideas already floating around. Our current topic contenders are modularising and packaging. Have something else to add? Come join the discussion at the NI Forum: