Simultaneous input/output using PCI-6036E and Matlab

[Juliew]

Hello,

I am a relatively new MatLab user and I am trying to do a seemingly simple task using my PCI-6036E series DAQ board.

I want to:

1. Record a 2-second window of data from a single AI channel

2. Produce a train of five voltage pulses (400 us wide or approx. 5000 Hz) after one second of data acquisition from one of the AO channels

3. Retain this information in a reliable and easily accessible way

I have tried using the NI-DAQmx tools, but I can't seem to get the data to record at the same time it is being output.  I have tried using the FiniteSquareWaveGen, FuncGen and GenNUpdates functions to generate the square pulses, and GenNUpdates seems to do the job.  Now, however, I don't know how to record at the same time.

Any suggestions you could offer would be greatly appreciated.  I'm feeling lost in MatLab!

-Julie

[Neil_S.]

Julie,

Thanks for posting to the NI Forums.  Unfortunately, the NI-DAQmx Tools do not provide this more complicated functionality.  NI-DAQmx Tools provides several simple functions that allow performing basic data acquisition but does not have functions to do this coordination between input and output.  It is possible to access this functionality by using the actual DAQmx API which is accessible from C, C++, C# .NET, VB .NET, and LabVIEW.  Do you have LabVIEW available?  If you do, I would high recommend moving your application to LabVIEW.  This week we released LabVIEW 8.20 that adds the ability to natively run .m scripts in LabVIEW.  If you have done significant development as .m scripts most should be able to run directly in LabVIEW without modification.  Moving to LabVIEW will also give you unfettered access to the NI-DAQmx API and would make programming the acquisition that you are looking to do much more straightforward.  Let me know if you have any additional questions about either LabVIEW or the NI-DAQmx Tools.

Regards,

Neil S.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments