Measurement Computing DAQ Boards and LV

I have been using LV and NI DAQ boards for several years with
excellent results. Goodby C++ forever (well...).
My boss sent me a flyer for Measurement Computing DAQ Boards and the
prices are great. They even offer a card I can't get from NI.
My question is: how well do these boards work with LV? Can I use all
the NI supplied VI's or must I use only the ones provided with the
Measurement Computing card?
Does anyone sell a card that clones a NI card so all the NI VI's work?
Thanks,
Linuz

Here's an opinion from somebody who doesn't work for NI also...
The measurement computing boards are technically very good, and also very
inexpensive. However the last one (a multifunction DAQ card, I forget the
model number) definately suffered from the SW differences you describe.
I already have enough difficulty getting the NI cards to work properly; for
a complicated project I wouldn't want to add a 3rd party card to the mix!
Usually it's worth a couple hundred bucks to have the full NI-DAQ driver,
support with NI-MAX, standard NI vis, and technical support if (when) the
whole system doesn't work as documented. I have had enough trouble using
RTSI synchronization between genuine boxed NI products. For an ambitious
project I would rarely consider a 3rd party DAQ solution.
On the other hand, if your application is straightforward and you like the
cost savings then go for it. When I tried the computerboards card, the SW
was lackluster but functional. The HW was very solid and around 1/3 of the
price. Given that Labview PDS is so freaking expensive, I would definately
consider a 3rd party board for routine tasks. I had a fine experience with
the computerboards card and the approx $500 savings (at the time) made the
project affordable.
-joey
"Greg McKaskle" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > I have been using LV and NI DAQ boards for several years with
> > excellent results. Goodby C++ forever (well...).
> >
> > My boss sent me a flyer for Measurement Computing DAQ Boards and the
> > prices are great. They even offer a card I can't get from NI.
> >
> > My question is: how well do these boards work with LV? Can I use all
> > the NI supplied VI's or must I use only the ones provided with the
> > Measurement Computing card?
> >
> > Does anyone sell a card that clones a NI card so all the NI VI's work?
>
> Any board can work with LV provided it has a driver to control it or you
> are ready to do peeking and poking to the board. Ideally it will also
> have the DLL calls into the driver wrapped into some VIs for easier use
> by LV users.
>
> Measurement Computing does have drivers, and you can purchase LV VIs for
> their cards.
>
> Before I go on, remember that I work for NI, so feel free to get another
> opinion or look into it yourself, but you will see a BIG difference in
> the SW support for boards from various manufacturers. NI provides lots
> of SW tools, VIs, and tech support, and that is reflected in the price
> of the boards. If a company sells the same board for less, they may be
> providing less in the SW and support side. You and your manager will
> have to determine the overall price of the project based upon your time
> spent installing, troubleshooting, writing VIs, and the price of the HW.
>
> As for a company making a clone of our HW so they can redistribute our
> driver? That has happened in the past, but to my knowledge no boards on
> the market currently do that.
>
> Greg McKaskle
>

Similar Messages

Measurement Computing DAQ cards

Hello everybody,
is anybody out there having experiences with DAQ cards from Measurement Computing? Especially the PCI-DAC670x series?
1) Are they really compatible (one2one replacement seen from the output connector) with cards from NI?
2) Is the Universal Library a stable software solution?
Any comments on these cards?
Best regards,
GerdW
CLAD, using 2009SP1 + LV2011SP1 + LV2014SP1 on WinXP+Win7+cRIO
Kudos are welcome

I am using a multifunction DAQ card and a analog out card. I have had no problems using the MCC Labview drivers, but there was a bug in build 550a when using the NI Labview drivers with the MCC boards. There was a memory leak, and I was told that it would be fixed in the next build. I have not checked to see if that is true yet.
I can't say if there is a one-one relationship with the connector, but logicially and electrically, I was able to use the MCC DAQ card the same way I was using an NI card.
In conclusion, using the card with the MCC Labview functions is safe and stable, but I can't say that you can use them reliably with the NI DAQ functions. I have always heard from other users that the hardware is as good as the NI products, and I have had no problems with that. Tech support is decent, also.

Measurement Computing MCC Board

I'm trying to use a MCC board PCI-DAS6071. I tested the board with some test programs, it works ok. My main program has nothing to do with the MCC board, I'm trying to integrate the board into my main program. My problem is, with or without the board integrated, once my program is run, it will make the board not workable. I will have to restart the computer to make the board work again. I contacted Measurement Computing but couldn't get much help. The tech support there is impatient and not very willing to help. Because this is not NI hardware, I couldn't get support from NI either. I'll attach my main program here. If anyone happens to have the expertise to recognize how the program set something to make the board not work, point it out for me and I will be very grateful. Sorry, I couldn't attach all the subVIs, there are just too many.
Thank you in advance.
Guangde
Attachments:
Repeat Break In 080319.vi ‏1859 KB

Hi Guangde,
Unfortunately to say, in the current state, this VI would be nearly impossible to diagnose. You may want to rebuild this VI from scratch.. break down your code and try to see which portion is creating this behavior. Also, your code is unusually large. We suggest that VIs be able to fit into one monitor page, and if not, break down the VI into subVIs and implement modular programming. You do not need to have wires spanning across multiple screens, as this not only lengthens development time, but debug time as well.
With these tips, it may let you debug your original code.
I'm sorry, this is probably not the answer you are looking for, but without the hardware and the subVIs, this VI is very difficult to troubleshoot.

I want use c++ for NI DAQ board and remote data access(RDA)

how can i control NI DAQ board with c++(bolandc) through network?

This is a forum for Measurement Studio development tools for Visual C++. You should post questions like this to the Measurements->Multifunction IO section of Developer's Exchange.
Best Regards,
Chris Matthews
National Instruments

Measure Frequency of Digital Signal from DAQ-Board

I'm using a National Instruments DAQ board and I need to measure the
frequency of a digital signal from my data acquisition board.
I know the measure frequency.vi (In diagram - data acquisition -
counter), but i don´t understand yours implementation mainly in input
"counter". Because i don't understand the relationship of board channel (for
signal acquiring ) and the measure frequency.vi.
Thanks in advance,
[email protected]

Hi,
Attached is a vi which models your signal, and provides a way to measure the average frequency over a window of time. It converts the signal to a sequence of periods. I usually start with this approach because you can save the data in a much more compact form if your sampling rate is high. Obviously over a specified period of time, if there are no zero crossings the frequency is zero, so I was a little incoherent before. The real issue is the latency caused by averaging. Your frequency measurement is most accurate half your window size before the current time, so smaller windows give you more up to date measurements, but also more noisy. If you need the most up to date measurement, then you have to use the time since the last crossing which is the case where the frequency never goes to zero. That's probably not a realistic situation. If you needed less latency, you could use a prediction algorithm.
Also, there are a number of signal measuring and processing vi's that LV gives you, for instance pulse measurements that could be used to partially implement this or other approaches, but I normally steer clear of them unless they fit exactly due to having to convert back and forth to the waveform data type.
Have fun!
Attachments:
DigRandFreq.png ‏62 KB
DigitalRandomFreq.vi ‏34 KB

Thermostat control through DAQ board

Hi all,
I am trying to control a DAQ board (Data Translation, DT9816) through LabVIEW. What I am trying to do is to send "one" to one of the output ports when a temperature value falls out of a specific range and send "zero" when it falls within the range. I tried to do that with a case structure. But when the condition is met, computer send "one" to the ports but when it is not met, it did not cease sending "one". I attached the code provided by manufacturer of the DAQ board (Dout Single.VI) Could you please send me an example VI for the implementation of the idea?
Thanks
Deniz
Solved!
Go to Solution.
Attachments:
Doutsingle.zip ‏56 KB

Thanks for the reply,
I tried to implement the idea with the while loop (see attached 3650_revised.VI). When the temperature is out of range at the beginning of the program, computer sends one to the board and when it is in range it sends zero. But when the code does not respond to the changes that are made after the run button is hit. I mean, the program works according to the value when the program is run for the first time. I guess this is due to the small while loop's (sending 1 or 0) conflicting with the big loop. Also, I recongnized that the small while loop messed up the rest of the code. (The case structure used for recording data from another instrument, it is also based on a comparison of required temperature value and the thermocouple reading)
How can I make the three function work alltogether properly? The three functions are indication of thermocouple reading is in range or not, sending 1 or 0 to the DAQ board and recording data when a specific condition is met.
Thanks again
Deniz
Attachments:
code.zip ‏213 KB

Connecting thermocouple to DAQ board

Hi,
I have a NI USB-9162 with NI cRIO -9215 (DAQ board) and I want to aquire temperature data with a J type thermocouple. I have read (http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4237#toc2) that you can't just connect the thermocouple to the DAQ board since you need to compensate for the cold-junction. Could someone explain to me how to do this using labview software? Thank you

Hi trishtrishtrish,
I assume you are asking how best to connect to the AI module and how this affects your system. There are three noise sources: the noise of the measurement board, the thermal drift of the measurement board, and the thermal noise of the cold junction measurement. The first two you should be able to get from the specs of the board, leaving the hardest number to estimate being thermal noise of the cold junction measurement.
When you make a thermocouple measurement, your "resolution" is limited by system noise (quantization and random) just as with any other measurement. However, because of the slow nature of temperature measurements, gain and offset drifts with temperature might also be considered noise and hence limit resolution. More specifically to thermocouple measurements, fluctuations in the cold junction measurement caused by changes in the temperature of either the CJ sensor or the actual CJ terminal temperature can also be considered drifts or noise, and further limit the effective resolution when considered over a long time period. NIs TC products, (which you might consider looking into) like the 9211 are designed with very good offset and gain drifts to limit that effect, but the magnitude of fluctuations in the CJ measurement error depend on the thermal characteristics of the installation.
The dominant source of noise (or resolution) in this application will be in the cold junction. Changes in the temperature of the wiring terminals that make up the cold junction will look like measurement noise, and so they will have the effect of reducing resolution. How much noise (or resolution) the you will end up with will depend on (1) how stable the temperature of the cold junction terminals can be kept and (2) over what length of time the signal is looked at. Over a period of hours, it will probably be very difficult to maintain the noise (or resolution). Over a period of one second, it should be rather easier. If we attempted cold junction compensation, the noise (or resolution) of the measurement will be dominated by the difference between the CJ Sensor measurement and the actual cold junction temperature. This should reduce the noise over long terms, but increase the noise over short periods.
If you are looking to make good measurements you will probably just need to build a old-fashioned cold junction terminal block sitting in an ice bath, and use 0 C as the cold junction value without actually measuring anything, then the noise will just be the stability of the terminal block temperature. If the terminal block temperature fluctuates by 0.1 deg C rms, then you would have an additional 0.1 deg C rms of noise. Check here for an image of how the ice bath would look: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4218 You could also look into an insulated oil bath with an RTd as a CJ sensor. I've seen both of these techniques working well in the past but feel they can be a hassle to deal and you might be better off by looking into a device designed for thermocouple measurements.
Regards,
Steve

DAQ board for acquiring analog pulses

Hi. I'm using the USB-6251 DAQ board, and I'm trying to record analog Gaussian curve-ish pulses into LabVIEW. Except when there is a pulse, the analog input channel is at 0V. Right now, I've got the trigger working to start acquisition at the beginning of the pulse, but I can't figure out how to stop acquisition when the pulse is over. I've been using the DAQ Assistant, with an Analog Window start trigger, set at the range 10m to 10 V. Is that the right way to do it? I can't get any reference trigger to work to stop the acquisition however. It's set to acquire 5k inputs at 1 kHz and always goes for the full 5 seconds instead of stopping.
Thanks in advance for helping!

Not exactly. It's still picking up pulses separately, but it's including the empty space afterwards (as in, if the pulse lasts only 10 ms, it still acquires data for the full 1 second). Preferably, it would stop acquiring data when the voltage is outside the analog window.
I attached the VI as it is right now, with just a start trigger and no reference trigger. I'm unsure how to configure the reference trigger to have it stop the acquision once the voltage is outside the window again.
Thanks for your help!
Jeremy
Attachments:
DAQ integration.vi ‏90 KB

Choice of a DAQ board.

i want a DAQ board,as per my project requirements... Attached is the file for level controlling of a non-linear cylindrical tank..
Moreover i will be requiring a NI sero motor control board as my inlet valve is analog valve with level control...
I have to make a prototype model of cylindrical tank,,in which ultrasonic sensor (YTD which one) will sense the level of water, will pass the signal in controlling loop thru DAQ board and the analog valve will control the inlet flow.
Kindly suggest me cost effective n efficient boards shortly as m running out of time.........
Attachments:
HORIZONTAL CYLINDER.vi ‏299 KB

You should either call NI directly or your local sales rep. Go to the main NI web page and in the upper right is a contact us link.

DAQ board recommendation

Greetings,
I would like to use Labview to control an MKS Instruments 247D control box, which in turn controls four mass flow contollers. The 247D has a 25 pin port on it for this purpose, the pin out diagram can be found here:
http://www.mksinst.com/pin247d.html
and the relevant product data sheet here:
http://www.mksinst.com/pdf/mfcontlr.pdf
It looks as though I need four 0-5V analog outputs (for the setpoint inputs), four TTL outputs (for the flow on/off inputs) and four 0-5V analog inupts for the transducer output. Could you recommend a product (presumably a DAQ board) that is well suited to this application? I should mention, I'm fairly well versed in (and a big fan of)labview, but have limited experience with DAQ boards and the like. Also, I would ideally like a USB device so that I can easily control my system from my laptop. Thanks for any advice you are able to offer.
-Adrian

As George stated, the best thing that National Insturments has to offer you to satisfy your requirements are the new M Series and USB devices. I thought I'd give you the exact recommendations on what you'll need.
If you're set on using USB, then go with the NI USB-6015. If you think you might need additional digital I/O in the future, the USB-6016 might be a better suit. With either the 6015 or 6016, you would need to get two devices.
If you're not set on the USB bus, then a single M Series device can easily get the job done and leave you with plenty to spare. The three devices that you could consider are the 18-bit, 625 kS/s, PCI-6289, 16-bit, 1.25 MS/s, PCI-6259, and 16-bit, 250 kS/s, PCI-6229. Each of the devices have the same line-up of I/O - 32 AI, 4 AO, 48 DIO, 2 CTR - but they all have different specifications and features.
What you should do is figure out what specifications are the most important to you and begin narrowing your choices based on those. If USB is the most important, then M Series won't cut it. If, however, you're not tied to the USB bus, then what's the next most important. Generally, one of the most important specification is accuracy. If this is true for you, then I encourage you to read up on the 18-bit devices and see how the unique features make it the world's most accurate MIO DAQ device.
Jared Aho
DAQ Product Engineer

Current loop measurement and DAQ board

Hi.
I want to acquire some values coming from sensors outputting a 4-20 mA signal.
I designed a solution with SCXI-1125 and E series card.
In other side, somebody -from NI- gave me a price offer with just E-Series DAQ card and a connecting board with resistors (and thus measuring Voltage). I can understand this solution (when the range are compatible).
So, can you explain me what are the benefits if I choose the most expensive solution (SCXI + E-series)compare to the cheapest one (E-series + resistor)
Thanks a lot.
SB.

Basically, the SCXI solution would provide a known level of accurracy and reconfiguration is much easier.
If you used a resistor network to convert the currents into voltages, you would be able to measure these voltages with your E-Series DAQ card with no problem. However, in order to convert these voltages back into the original currents you would have to apply scaling within MAX. This would require that you know each of the resistance values. Since many resistors have a slight tolerance, each resistor would likely have a slightly different value and need to be measured individually. The resistors could possibly change value over time or depending on the environmental temperature.
The signal conditioning solution, on the other hand, can provide you with a
known level of accurracy based on the specifications of the modules used. Additionally, if you ever required a change in your design you would only have to modify the configuration in MAX and no hardware changes would be needed since newer SCXI modules are software configurable.

Will LabVIEW talk to DAQ board made by Measurement Computing?

I am a senior at UNC-CH, working on a research project for a professor who has a DAQ board made by Measurement Computing, which looks very similar to NI boards I have used in the past. Model: CIO-DAS16/330 The software we're using is LabVIEW 5.0, and I need to know if there is any way to make LabVIEW talk to these boards? I understand that the best solution would be to buy an NI board that LabVIEW is configured to work with, but we don't have the money for that!

In article <50650000000500000017E00000-1042324653000@exchange.ni.com>,
"alberto" wrote:
> Hi Nicoletta,
> I checked on their site and they provide a library of LV functions to
> interface to their boards:
> http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/cbiproduct.asp?dept%5Fid=184&pf%5Fid=623&mscssid=HUXACAQX49EF8G7NLAUUX95WUP156JX5
>
> Good luck,
> Alberto
Yeah, I've used these libraries and they work fine. The library
package cost me $50 about a year ago. Most of their boards are
supported under the Comedi drivers so you can use them with
Linux if you don't want to pay for the MC libraries.
-Kevin

External clock LabView crash with Measurment Computing board.

Hi,
I'm using a Measurment Computing PCI-DAS6402-16 board with Labview (using Universal librarys VIs) in a 4-stroke engine DAQ application and amognst the signals obtain Internaly clocked, there is In-Cylinders Pressure signal which is timed with a Crank-angle deocoder sending analog pulse signal.
Although there seems to be no problem while the motor is running, it appears that when to external clocked signal is not getting any pulses (while the motor is not running) then Labview stops to respond and awaits for the external clock to start, and that doesnt happen within 10s then it crashes.
I dont know whether it is Software problem (because external and internal clocked signals are both in the same WHILE LOOP) or if it is a Hardware problem (because With a NI card there seem to be no problems).
THNX in Advance

Well it couldnt be a more typcal windows crash:
If a channel is externally timed with an analog pusle signal, If the VI starts running but the external clock isn't then:
-Labview stops to respond to any clicks (there is no .exe at this point) but it keeps working though (That i know cause if i start the ext. clock at this point it "un-stucks' and starts working)
-But, if for some secs no ext. pulse signal is generated then labnview app stops respondin and i get the typical 'send error report' window.
Could it be that the Universal library for Measurment Computing boards haw a bug? Cause the same thing happens with the "Analog input External Clock.vi" example given with the Library..so it can't be my mistake..or can it?!

Measure scan frequency using 2 e-series boards and an external clock.

I am setting up a data acquisition system in which the user has the ability to select between multiple sources for the scan frequency. The user can choose either hardware based and select the scan frequency or an external source, in this case, an encoder. When the user selects the external case, I would like to measure the scan frequency. I have a PXI chassis with 3 6071E DAQ boards. I have the encoder pulse train wired into the master board and would like to use one of the slave boards to count the pulses and measure the frequency. I based the code I developed on example code that shipped with LabView. However, when I drive the master board with a known frequency using its internal clock,
I measure 0 frequency on using the slave boards counter.
Attachments:
DAQ_3_Boards_-_State_Machine_-_Scaled_Array.llb ‏1525 KB

It sounds like you have your program setup to measure the frequency of the clock only when you are using an external source. The counter won't get an input if you are not using an external source, right? So, when you drive the master board with an internal clock, the counter will have nothing to count.

Program NI boards using the DAQ Libary and Borland C++ builder 5

Hi,
I am programming Lab PC-1200 NI boards using the DAQ Libary and Borland C++ builder 5.
But I get the following error msg:"[Linker Error] 'C:\NI-DAQ\LIB\NIDEX32.LIB' contains invalid OMF record, type 0x21 (possibly COFF)" although I have linked all DAQ lib files in C builder.
Anyone who had tried or succeeded in a similar application and solved this problem??
Thank you in advance for your help!

Hi w,
Please check out this related DevZone question/answer:
http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RNAME=ViewQuestion&HOID=5065000000080000007D180000&ECategory=Measurement+Hardware.Real-Time+Data+Acquisition
The basic reason is that we design our libraries for many environments, but Builder is not one of them. You can use the dll's (they're just dll's), but you will need to make your own library or use run-time linking.
For more information about run-time linking, you can try http://msdn.microsoft.com and search for "About Dynamic-Link Libraries"
I hope this gives you a start.
John N
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

Measurement Computing DAQ Boards and LV

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