NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 Readme

Copyright 2004 National Instruments. Part number 371034A-01. All rights reserved. For patents covering National Instruments products, refer to ni.com/patents.

CVI™, LabVIEW™, Measurement Studio™, National Instruments™, NI™, ni.com™, and NI-DAQ™ are trademarks of National Instruments Corporation.

Product and company names mentioned herein are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Thank you for using NI-DAQmx Base 1.0.

The NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 software contains a LabVIEW Application Programming Interface (API) which allows you to create applications for your device.

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 supports PCMCIA E-Series cards on Pocket PC 2003 with LabVIEW 7.1 PDA. The development environment runs in LabVIEW 7.1 and is supported on Windows 2000 and XP.

Choosing the API to Use

The following sections provide a NI-DAQmx and NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 overview and includes information about choosing the right API for the device and application.

NI-DAQmx

If you are using National Instruments application software such as LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Measurement Studio, you must have version 7.0 or later of the application software to use NI-DAQmx.

Install and use NI-DAQmx if the following situations apply:

• You are using Windows.
• You are using device(s) not supported by NI-DAQmx Base 1.0.

Other Contingencies

• If you use one of the Measurement Studio .NET languages, you must use NI-DAQmx.

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0

Install and use NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 if the following situations apply:

• You are using an operating system not supported by NI-DAQmx, such as Pocket PC.
• You are using a device which is only supported by NI-DAQmx Base 1.0.

Operating System, Application Software, Programming Language, and Device Support in NI-DAQmx Base 1.0

NI-DAQmx and NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 are compatible and can be installed on the same computer.

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 does not support all of National Instrument's measurement devices. Subsequent releases of NI-DAQmx Base will support more devices supported by NI-DAQmx.

Operating System Support

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 supports Pocket PC 2003 with LabVIEW 7.1 PDA. The development environment runs in LabVIEW 7.1 and is supported on Windows 2000 and XP.

Application Software and Programming Language Support

The following table lists the application software versions supported by NI-DAQmx Base 1.0.

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 Device Support

For PDA, only NI-DAQCards for PCMCIA are supported.

The following devices are supported by NI-DAQmx Base 1.0:

• NI-DAQCard 6024E 200 kS/s, 12-bit, 16 AI channels, two AO channels, 8 DIO lines, two counter/timers
• NI-DAQCard 6062E 500 kS/s, 12-bit, 16 AI channels, two AO channels, 8 DIO lines, two counter/timers
• NI-DAQCard 6036E 200 kS/s, 16-bit, 16 AI channels, two AO channels, 8 DIO lines, two counter/timers
• NI-DAQCard AI-16E-4 (6041E) 500 kS/s, 12-bit, 16 AI channels, 8 DIO lines, two counter/timers

Future Releases of NI-DAQmx Base

Future NI-DAQmx Base releases will support additional devices that are currently supported in NI-DAQmx.

Operating System Requirements

The following section discusses NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 operating system install requirements. When installing NI-DAQmx Base, the operating system must meet the following requirements:

Windows

Deployment (on Pocket PC 2003 only)

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 Known Issues

The following list covers issues specific to NI-DAQmx Base 1.0.

• Some E Series devices on some PDAs may experience problems loading the calibration constants. A warning (223700) will be generated by the start task VI if this condition is detected. This condition has been reported on the Compaq IPAQ 3900 series.
• The DAQ hardware model (such as 6062E or 6036E) is not detected at run-time on the PDA. The driver determines the DAQ device capabilities, scaling mode and calibration constants based on the DAQ hardware model selected in the configuration tool.
• Single point analog input (AI) is not supported. All the DAQ devices supported in this release support buffered AI tasks.
• Triggering (Digital or Analog) is only supported for analog input tasks.
• Single point analog output (AO) is not supported. Only the DAQCard-6062E supports buffered AO operations. AO tasks will not work for any other DAQ device. If an AO task is used with a non-supported device, the write operation will timeout (error -200474) trying to write to the FIFO.
• The first sample of an analog output task without FIFO regeneration enabled is not generated.
• PFI0 is the only supported analog trigger signal input.
• DAQ task constants can lose their value when building the application. When using DAQ Task constants use Operate >> Make Current Value Default with the block diagram open before building the application to set the string value to the DAQ Task constant. The constant will not lose its value after the application is deployed.
• Due to the limited processing capabilities of PDA devices the maximum buffered counter read rate is 4 Hz. This refers to the rate at which counter measurements are triggered. This limitation does not apply to more common read operations.
• The first reading in pulse width and period measurement counter operations is discarded. Two consucutive pulses are needed to take a measurement, the returned measurement refers to the last.
• NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 supports static task configuration only. Programmatic task configuration will be supported in a future version.
• Saving VIs while building an NI-DAQmx Base application may take longer than saving all VIs needed to build a non-NI-DAQmx Base application. NI-DAQmx Base may have more than 100 VIs in memory, which increases the time required to save VIs for the Build for PDA process.
• Property nodes are not available in LabVIEW PDA, including NI-DAQmx API properties. NI-DAQmx API properties are not supported in NI-DAQmx Base 1.0. Use the NI-DAQmx base Configuration Utility to change parameters not supported in the VIs
• For faster acquisitions, go to Tools»Build for PDA on the Advanced tab and select Generate Serial Only. Generate Serial Only increases the maximum speed of NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 by disabling the pauses which update the VI front panel during execution. If you select Generate Serial Only, you must add a 10ms wait in the main loop of the VI, otherwise the VI may appear unresponsive.
• For the fastest AI acquisitions, use the Raw I16 1D version of the polymorphic DAQmxBase Read.vi. The Raw I16 1D version does the least amount of memory allocation, and no floating point calculations. Raw I16 1D can acquire as fast as 200KS/s.
• Changing the system font or Windows color schemes can cause incorrect behavior in ESeries AI Read FIFO Raw 1D I16 Pretrigger.vi and ESeries AI Read FIFO Raw 1D I16.vi. This condition will cause the following run-time error in the PDA application: Error code 130413003: Unable to lock memory chunk. To fix, open the VI and click on the Run arrow while holding the Shift Key. This forces a recompile of the VI.

NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 Error Codes

List of supported error codes in the NI-DAQmx Base 1.0 API.

• -200536 Specified value is smaller than the minimum value supported for this property.
• -200526 Write cannot be performed because this version of DAQmx Write does not match the type of channels in the task.
• -200525 Read cannot be performed because this version of DAQmx Read does not match the type of channels in the task.
• -200478 Specified operation cannot be performed when there are no channels in the task.
• -200474 Specified operation did not complete, because the specified timeout expired.
• -200473 Read cannot be performed when the Auto Start property is false and the task is not running or committed.
• -200428 Value passed to the Task/Channels In control is invalid.
• -200361 Onboard device memory overflow. Because of system and/or bus-bandwidth limitations, the driver could not read data from the device fast enough to keep up with the device throughput.
  
  Reduce the sample rate, or reduce the number of programs your computer is executing concurrently.
• -200341 Generation was configured to use only onboard memory, but the corresponding buffer is larger than onboard memory. Buffer size is provided implicitly when data is written or explicitly when the buffer is configured.
• -200284 Some or all of the samples requested have not yet been acquired.
  
  To wait for the samples to become available use a longer read timeout or read later in your program. To make the samples available sooner, increase the sample rate. If your task uses a start trigger, make sure that your start trigger is configured correctly. It is also possible that you configured the task for external timing, and no clock was supplied. If this is the case, supply an external clock.
• -200278 Attempted to read a sample beyond the final sample acquired. The acquisition has stopped, therefore the sample specified by the combination of position and offset will never be available.
• -200214 Analog trigger circuitry unavailable on the device.
• -200170 Physical channel specified does not exist on this device. Refer to the documentation for channels available on this device.
• -200096 Number of samples to read must be -1 or greater.
• -200077 Requested value is not a supported value for this property.
• -200012 Specified physical channel does not support digital output.
• -233700 Internal NI-DAQmx Base Software error.
• 233700 Internal NI-DAQmx Base Software warning.
• MHDDK errors:
  15
  Resource Not Found - The application cannot get access to the hardware. Occurs if the DAQ device is not installed on the PDA.