Builid user interface based on connected instruments

[BNILabview]

I am relatively new to LabView and need to create a generic labview program that will identify how many instruments/channels are connected (only 4-20mA or 0-10V sensors for now) and generate a user interface that displays charts and indicators for only the connected channels.

My main questions:

1.) Is there a way to read whether or not an instrument is connected (using a USB-6218)?

If I can figure out how identify which channels are in use, I can write the code to aquire the data for X  channels.

2.) What is the best way to go about automatically populating the user interface? Property nodes?

What do I mean by "populating": placing indicators and charts in an organized fashion regardless of number of channels in use.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks.

[mikeporter]

Question 1: Depending upon the type of sensor you sometimes can. The current loops should be fine, but a problem that can arise with general purpose IO is when the output of a channel when it is disconnected is actually a valid reading. For example, say an input floats up to 5V when it is disconnected. How do you distinguish between that input and a connected sensor that is outputing 5V?

Question 2: Property nodes will be involved, but the real solution is to use indicator types that are inherently "scaleable". For example an array can always have one more element. Create a cluster to display the data from one channel and create an array of those clusters. Be sure to add a scroll bar so the user can move around in the dataset when it doesn't all fit on the screen.

Mike...