News

National Instruments has undergone extensive restructuring in recent years and embarked on a new course. This has led to the closure of many offices in Europe, particularly in Switzerland and Germany, and the elimination of cherished events such as NI Days, LabVIEW Developer Days and NI Connect in Munich. These changes have caused great uncertainty in the LabVIEW community and raised questions about where National Instruments is heading with its products, including LabVIEW.

At the end of 2023, Emerson took over National Instruments, and shortly afterwards we received a first positive answer to our questions. We are encouraged by the recent message from NI/Emerson on January 23, 2024, and look forward to meaningful changes and clear goals for the future of LabVIEW.

In view of this strong sign, NI partners Schmid Elektronik and PI Electronics have launched the "Swiss LabVIEW User Group" and cordially invite you to the founding event on March 21, 2024. On this occasion, the NI LabVIEW community will finally be able to exchange ideas about graphical programming and the NI platform again. The event will include presentations about LabVIEW and NI as well as workshops.

As an official partner of this event, Sotronik will be on site as an exhibitor and present an exciting lecture to the participants. We would be delighted to welcome you to the free inaugural event of the "Swiss LabVIEW User Group"! All information and registration can be found directly on the landing page: Swiss LabVIEW User Group (schmid-elektronik.ch).

- 20.02.2024

... an office where ideas grow faster than weeds! An environment in which solutions thrive on fertile and solid ground. A space for people who take responsibility for nature and the future of their children. It is the place where the most creative engineers prefer to think!

Inspired by technology, we have let this place be represented by amazing artificial intelligence algorithms.

Here's to a year full of thriving innovation and sustainable success!

- 01.01.2024

The Integration Partner Days took place at Hilscher's headquarters (D-Hattersheim) on October 10-11, 2023 under the motto "Shaping the future together". Philippe Hindermann and Stefan Genswein were there from Sotronik and gained valuable insights from the areas of technology, product management, sales and marketing at Hilscher.

The integration partners and the Hilscher management and support team got to know each other better, contacts were made and together they experienced two intensive days full of knowledge exchange, inspiration and cooperation!

Sotronik is looking forward to future projects with Hilscher and its customers and partners.

- 16.10.2023

Coffee: a pick-me-up, a break companion. The biggest producers are in Central and South America. That's quite a long way from Europe and leaves you with a stale feeling after drinking it.

We should not only talk about it, but also do something about it! We have been enjoying our coffee from Atinkana.org for some time out of conviction and in line with the economy for the common good.

Not only is it grown sustainably and the producer is well paid. It is transported to Europe using wind power instead of burnt oil. Not only that: the transportation to Switzerland and the final distribution are also carried out as far as possible without fossil fuels. Part of the price is invested in reforestation. In other words, as CO2-neutral as possible. And quite apart from that: it tastes delicious!

- 4.10.2023

Sotronik has been an official Qualified Embedded SW Integration Partner of Hilscher since the end of April 2023! Sotronik is thus expanding and deepening its expertise in the field of industrial communication! The core technology of Hilscher products is based on processors with variable protocol stacks. Thanks to this technology, the connection to all fieldbus and Real-Time Ethernet systems can be realized in an end product with just one Hilscher chip.

The product portfolio includes proprietary multicore controllers, embedded modules, PC cards, switches, IoT gateways as well as diagnostic and software tools. As an embedded software integration partner of Hilscher, Sotronik supports you in the integration of Hilscher components in your product or application.

- 3.05.2023

The European Spallation Source ESS in Lund (Sweden) is a research facility currently under construction that will generate long pulses of very high intensity neutron radiation. This facility will enable structural and dynamic investigations of materials on a molecular and atomic scale. In contrast to conventional neutron beam sources, the neutrons at the ESS are not produced by nuclear fission in a reactor, but by bombardment.
fission in a reactor, but by bombarding metal (tungsten) with protons (nuclear disintegration or "spallation"). The ESS is breaking new ground in terms of both the technology used and the performance data and will be the world's most powerful neutron source.

The ZHAW (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) was commissioned to design, develop, integrate and test the Fast Beam Interlock System (FBIS) for the ESS. The FBIS is used to protect the system and monitors a large number of sensor systems for this purpose. If a deviation from the target state is detected, the FBIS activates a series of actuators within a few microseconds and thus prevents the next neutron pulse.

Sotronik supported the ZHAW in the realization of this safety system in various areas. As part of the project completion, we were invited to visit the ESS on site and see the FBIS components in action. The visit was fascinating - the research facility is impressive in many respects and exemplary for courage and innovation! We would like to thank the team of Dr. Christian Hilbes from the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Physics at the ZHAW for the very pleasant and successful cooperation over several years!

ESS: https://europeanspallationsource.se/

- 10.12.2022

Sotronik is officially part of the MathWorks® connections program since 01.10.2022 and is listed on the MathWorks website as a third-party provider for system integration services. This enables Sotronik to offer its customers even better support in the development of Matlab/Simulink models and customized integration into their product firmware.

Sotronik has already implemented the nabto solution on a customer-specific basis in its own projects and is impressed by the reliability and performance offered by the nabto platform.

- 21.04.2022

Das Fast Beam Interlock System (FBIS) wurde erfolgreich in Betrieb genommen. Dabei handelt es sich um ein robustes Schutzsystem, welches eine hohe Verfügbarkeit ermöglicht, indem es die Maschinenzustände kontinuierlich überwacht und darauf entsprechend reagiert. So werden lange Anlagenstillstände vermieden und den Betrieb in jeder Phase optimiert.

Das FBIS wurde in Zusammenarbeit mit der ZHAW für die European Spallation Source (ESS) entwickelt.

Weiterführende Infos:

• Projektbeispiel Sotronik
• ESS (Wikipedia)

Die Abbildung zeigt einen Screenshot der öffentlichen Zustandsanzeige der European Spallation Source (ESS, https://pos.esss.lu.se). Oben links ist das globale FBIS-Permit Flag zu sehen, mit welchem die Anlage freigegeben wird.

We would like to welcome our new employee Nehir Schmid.

Nehir will strengthen our software development team.

- 5.01.2022

We have had an eventful year! We were finally able to celebrate our 20th anniversary with an extended team weekend at Lake Walen and a big party with technical gadgets, fine food and music at Technorama in the fall. As a team, we were and are highly motivated and were even able to recruit two new employees recently.

Leafing through the anniversary photo album, we are gripped by a feeling of gratitude coupled with a pinch of pride. Sotronik has been able to successfully participate in many interesting projects and has developed friendly relationships with long-standing customers.

For company co-founder Peter Fischbacher, it was a good time to turn the page and open a new chapter. He has handed over his Sotronik shares to the experienced hands of Stefan, Alain and Gregor and will be reducing his workload in future. As an enthusiastic engineer, he will continue to work for Sotronik, but will also take more time for his grandchildren, for traveling with his wife and for private project ideas.

We wish you many enjoyable experiences for your personal memory album in 2022.

We would like to welcome our new employee Thomas Bühler.

Thomas will strengthen our LabVIEW Team.

- 1.12.2021

After 21 years, we were finally able to host this party with over 200 people.

On September 17, 2021, we celebrated our 20th anniversary at Technorama. It was great - we enjoyed the party! Many thanks to Technorama for the special hospitality, IKAN HYU for the music and everyone who celebrated with us. We will remember this evening for a long time to come!

Photo book: 20 years of Sotronik

Are the green and the blue in the picture the exact same colors?

In 2000, Sotronik set off on its great adventure: We experienced a lot, made fascinating discoveries and explored the colorful world of software and electronics. And we also learned that not everything is always exactly as it seems.

Our perception is shaped by the world in which we move.

We are delighted with the 20 successful years that lie behind us - and are looking forward to the many more colorful decades to come. Many thanks to all those who have influenced and will continue to influence our path with their colorful accents!

We wish you an exciting, fascinating 2021.

- 31.12.2020