The Details When: July 24, 2026 - the day after the Conference! Session Time: 9:00am-1:00pm Description: Are you curious about Actor Framework, and want to find out what it’s all about? Or perhaps you’ve worked with it a bit, and need an opportunity to work with what you’ve learned? Then this workshop is for you! Here, you will design and build an Actor Framework system using the hardware selected for the Community Training Initiative. The finished system will manage two Raspberry Pi Pico devices – a servo motor controller and a physical control panel. You will design actors from a written specification, with the option to work from a script or solve the challenge on your own. You will learn how to control hardware from an actor, how to write unit tests for your actors, and how to design systems to enable team development. Requirements: You will need to provide your own laptop with:
LabVIEW 2020 or later A USB-A port (can be a hub or adapter for your USB-C port) Recommended: your preferred unit testing add-on (Caraya, LUnit, or VI Tester) Recommended: Desktop Execution Trace Toolkit (if you already have a license)
You will need the CTI hardware kit; ; you can bring your own, or purchase the “kit included” ticket to have one waiting for you at the workshop. (If you took Derrick Bommarito’s CTI workshop at last year’s GDevCon, bring it; you already have everything you need.) Kit:
Grove Starter Kit from Seeedstudio: https://www.seeedstudio.com/Grove-Starter-Kit-for-Raspberry-Pi-Pico-p-4851.html Raspberry Pi Pico W (available pretty much everywhere): https://www.seeedstudio.com/Raspberry-Pi-Pico-W-p-5429.html USB Micro-B to USB-A cable (anywhwere)
(Given the uncertainties of international shipping, we may need to substitute a different starter kit of comparable value for the “kit included” ticket.) All students bringing their own kits are encouraged to get the latest CTI driver set, download the firmware version onto their Pi Picos, and do some simple experiments with the LabVIEW drivers to gain familiarity, and to make sure everything works as expected. The instructor will e-mail the latest Pi Pico firmware to students prior to the course. The LabVIEW drivers are here: https://github.com/LabVIEWCommunityTraining/cti-drivers-lv-visa.git Where: Beckhoff Chicago - Training Facility (a few minutes walk away from the OLC) Cost: $380 if you need a hardware kit, $300 if you bring your own. *Please note - due to hardware shipping times, ticketing for this workshop will close on May 31st for those that need a hardware kit.
About Your Instructor: Allen C. Smith, owner of Just ACS, is a consulting software architect and a globally recognized expert on Actor Framework. He worked with Stephen Loftus-Mercer to develop the framework and wrote most of the support tools that ship with LabVIEW. He developed, maintains, and frequently teaches NI’s official training course on the subject, Actor-Oriented Design in LabVIEW. He uses Actor Framework extensively in his own project work, and currently heads its open source steering committee.