Minimum installation for console apps

[RPB_Jr]

I've written console code under Windoz 11 to acquire 8-bit parallel data using the NIDAQmxBase (2025-Q1) installation driving NI USB-6009 & 6501 pods. Works fine. However, I don't need/want LabView, LabWindows or any GUI support. I just want the absolute minimum development environment required to compile/distribute console apps using the aforementioned NI devices. What can I remove/delete from my NIDAQmxBase installation and keep that capability? Would Linux be a better solution to do this? Thank you.

[rolfk]

Which NI-DAQmx Base are you referring to? That was AFAIK a discontinued effort to try to support non-Windows OSes for certain selected DAQ hardware. https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-daqmx-base.html

There used to be a Windows port of it for compatibility reason, but the recommended way to use NI DAQ devices under Windows always was the normal NI DAQmx driver.

Basically you need the DAQmx driver itself from here: https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-daq-mx.html

And you need to make sure to install the actual driver and any C development SDK components. Also NI-Max is most likely an almost indispensable install too, in order to be able to configure and possibly test your hardware.

LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI support only should gets installed if it finds a compatible installation of those products, although there is a chance that it will create some directories inside the National Instruments product folder for these programs and install minor resource files into it. It's an annoyance but typically amounts to a few kB of extra files only, a nothingness in comparison to the amount of drivers, documents, services and what else it will install anyhow.

Device support under NI-DAQmx for Linux us a lot more limited. According to this compatiblity chart https://www.ni.com/en/support/documentation/compatibility/21/ni-hardware-and-operating-system-compat...

your 6009 and 6501 USB boxes are not supported by NI-DAQmx for Linux.

[RPB_Jr · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your response. I'm using DAQmxx Base because it's the smallest footprint NI software I can find to operate my USB devices. It's actively supported. I was pushed the 2025-Q1 update and my devices receive firmware updates as required. It all works - but I was hoping I could find a more reasonable solution to drive my NI USB pods. I don't need or want anything to do with LabView. I don't need resource scheduling (tasking), priority management, GUI, etc. NI should be able to provide a simple API to communicate with it's devices. This typically consists of C/C++ libraries and header files requiring a few meg of space. What NI is calling a 'device driver' is actually a very large development/operations environment. Quite frankly for my application I could develop a better digital output device using a 20 year old PC with a parallel printer port, MS-DOS and 30-ish lines of legacy Borland C. As an embedded systems developer I suppose I'm biased. The software (firmware) I develop typically talks directly to the electronics. The electronics sometimes being of my design. Thank you again for your response. You've explained things well. I'll use the resources NI provides. I just won't be all that happy about it!