Sunil,
A National Instruments PCI-MXI-2 and/or VXI-MXI-2 can be detected programatically a number of ways. The most fundamental and portable, and best code practice, is to use VISA functions detect and identify all VXI modules, including the controller (in this case, MXI-2). A "VISA Find Resources" function will provide a list of all controllers and instruments on the system. All VXI devices will be found with a VISA resource of the form "VXIx::LA::INSTR", where "x" is the system number (typically 0) and LA is the device's logical address. After you retrieve the list of all VXI devices with a "VISA Find Resources", you can then use "viGetAttributes" to read manufacturer and model from the instruments for specific identification.
This method uses the VXI and
VISA standards, so it will work not only with MXI-2, but any other controller you choose to use in the future, even if it is a non-National Instruments controller. This portability is one of the major advantages to using VISA.
You can download VISA from the ni.com web page at the following link:
http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/display?ReadForm&lookup=NI-VISA&view=current&node=132060_US
When you install VISA, you will have a an examples directory (for example, c:\vxipnp\Win95\NIVisa\Examples). In this Examples directory are examples for C, VB4, and VB5. One of the "General" examples is a VISA Find Resources Example. You could easily modify this example to detect manufacturer and model of the found devices.
Regards,
Greg Caesar
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
