Where to start

[Haavikon]

I need some advice on where to start with a problem.
I have an old ISA Ortec 916 MCB card which I would like to interface with Labview.
I have a new PC with an on-board ISA slot with Linux and Labview 7.1 Installed.
The old card doesn't have a great manual, seems to be mainly about the software which controls the card on old DOS machines however it does have code examples to access the card in Basic and C.
I'm wondering how to start writing a driver for this hardware.
If this has been addressed before I cant find the information from searching, any advice would be greatly appreciated
Regards
Dan

[SachaE]

Hi,

  depending on whether there's an API to the hardware already or not, would dictate how to approach talking to it from LabVIEW.

You could try the low level approach yourself and write to the physical address that the board installs into if that's something that the manual describes. (Btw is the manual in soft copy or hard copy? If it's soft copy you may get results posting it back here and we can see if there's something obvious in the way the examples talk to the board). I can't find any details on the Ortec 916 MCB online so I don't know the manufacturer's website to go looking for them.

Port I/O may be used if you have appropriate port driver (e.g. /dev/name.o). You could try the C examples in GNU C on your Linux box and see if you can get some sort of communication there, and then turn them into shared libraries which you could call from LabVIEW. There was Inport/outport vi available, made with CIN. http://sourceforge.net/projects/cin4labview/.

Is the Ortec 916 MCB integral to the system specification or do you simply need a multichannel acquisition card? (In which case you may find that the time you save in trying to get your Ortec card working would be better spent on buying a more up to date card. - do you have the signal specifications you're looking for?)

If you'd like to call into the uk office on 01635 572410 and ask to be put through to the sales department, then they would be able to talk you through the costs and options that best match your requirements.

Thanks

Sacha Emery
National Instruments (UK)