CVI 9 and most recent analog cards such as 6363

[francoisL]

Hi! Community,

 We are quite happy with the old version of CVI, it handles all GPIB instructions, but recently we are contemplating buying more specialized hardware from NI...

like the PCIE card 6363.

 Would I be able to install a recent version of DAQmx and talk to this new card using existing libraries, or is it mandatory to get a new version of CVI to talk to this hardware?

in particular, would I be able to talk to it using AO_VWrite(...) defined in dataacq.h ?

thanks all for any info on that topic...

[CVI-User]

Yes, that's possible. BUT:

• current DAXmx Versions are for 64 bit Windows only. You might have to look for an older version if you use a 32 bit Windows
• it's a completely new API, it might require a week of R&D to add it to your software
• it's way slower if you need to reconfigure or reuse the channels during runtime
• cards are identified by name (string) not an id number
• Pro: you can add a simulated 6363 card to your MAX and develop your software using that

About the third point ("way slower"): you need to create a "Task", configure it to read 2 samples from the input channel that also needs to be configured, run the task and clear all up afterwards. Instead of just calling AO_VWrite().

But only if you need to reuse the channel for other things like doing a data capture of it together with other channels.

Hope this helps.

[RobertoBozzolo]

Looking at this scenario from another point of view:

• AO_VWrite() is part of the so called "Traditional DAQ" (formerly NI-DAQ) driver
• Traditional DAQ is no more developed and maintained: I cannot be sure but it is possible that it cannot drive your new DAQ board
• It cannot be installed on 64-bit systems
• It cannot coexist with whichever version of DAQmx in your program
• Traditional DAQ is hard to download from NI site

That is to say, the most recommended path in order to use the board you mention is to upgrade to DAQmx: there are a number of resources to help in this transition but if you haven't used DAQmx till now this won't be a trivial task.

You may want to start reading some informations like the series of documents that starts here:

Transitioning from Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) to NI-DAQmx Using ANSI C and NI LabWindows™/CVI