Recommendations for xPC Target compatible DAQ for PC platform

[EddieF]

Hi everyone,

We are putting together a small hardware in the loop at my company and one of the options we are looking at is using a Mathworks xPC target, a National Instruments DAQ on a standard workstation PC as the target. What we want to do is use the PC to run real-time simulations developed in Simulinks. The PC will connect to the outside world (a flight computer/hardware) through a National Instruments DAQ.

Looking through the list of compatible National Instruments Boards the NI 6052E board seems to fit our (rough) requirements. The problem is, it seems like all the new PCs have moved to PCI express slots and have limited PCI slots. So I'm looking for people with a similar application and what hardware they are using.

thanks!

eddie

[stilly32]

Hi EddieF,

There are a few options I would look into:

If you're looking for a PCI express card, the PCIe 6251 or 6259 both are PCI express and have similar (if not better) characteristics to the 6052e. They also compare favorably cost wise and are available for PCI slots.  

Another route to go would be those same cards in the USB form factor and not have to worry about the slot at all on the computer. You also get the advantage of having the break out box and cabling all wrapped up in one package, and you could use it on a laptop for future development. The USB versions have the same sampling rate and channel counts as well.

You can look at both of those options here - https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/category/multifunction-io.html

You mentioned the 6052e, and that is also a solid option in the PCI form factor. This raises a possible caveat though: the 6251 and 6259 are M Series devices that are programmed with the DAQmx drivers while the 6052e is an E Series card that can be programmed using DAQmx or Traditional DAQ (Legacy drivers). What environment are you planning on programming your DAQ card in? All of NI's current platforms (LabVIEW, CVI) and standard text based languages (C/C++, VB, .NET) support both DAQmx and Traditional DAQ, but some third party toolkits use just Traditional DAQ. It's just one thing to keep in mind.

I would recommend talking this over with a Technical Representative in sales. You can get in touch with them here - www.ni.com/contact They do a great job of matching up the right card (form factor, channel counts, sampling rates) with the right application, and bringing up caveats like the one above.  

Hope this helps,

Andrew S.

National Instruments  

[EddieF]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the info. Perhaps I am about naive but we are looking for a DAQ that is supported by xPC target and thus I was assuming that all the drivers would already be written by Mathworks. That is, the communication between the xPC target and the DAQ would be automatic. The primary reason for choosing the E series board over the M was that Matlab does not list the M series boards as being supported by xPC target. I'm still waiting to talk to Mathworks but I will definitely call NI before we make a move.

thanks!

eddie