Troubles with USB 6009 on MAC OS 10.5 and LV8.5

[ferramis]

Hello,

Some while ago we bought a USB 6009 card with the intention to use it on a iMac (MAC OS 10.5 with 8 and later 8.2). However we never got the device to work under MAC (we also installed the NI-DAQmx base version which was recommended at that time). Due to lazyness we installed WinXp on the MACs and the card worked fine under Windows. Now, more then a year later, we are thinking to upgrade some other acquisition computers and would like to stick to MAC, due to other reasons, so the question is whether or not we should stay with USB cards instead of PCI(EXPRESS) cards. After speaking to the support and hearing about the new NI-DAQmx base 3.1 version they made me hope that the USB 6009 and the others we are considering to buy might work just fine under MAC. So I upgraded LV to 8.5, installed NI-DAQmx base 3.1 and tried to open a working VI from LV8.2 under WinXP running on MAC under LV8.5 (but also 8.2) with NI-DAQmx base 3.1 under MAC OS 10.5. After replaxing the AI  start/timer/read etc VIs the VI was free of errors, except that the card was not shown in the "physical channel" option. If I run the datalogger I can acquire the Analog input channels correctly, and it calls the device "DEV1". I searched a bit in the forum and I guess that in difference to WinXP I need a "task" for the physical channel under MAC, but so far I couldn't solve it. Also the MAC runs extremely slow with LabView open, to open a single VI with some basic AI routines takes some 10 minutes (it loads some thousands of VIs, like Mseries, Eseries, SSeries, etc, I am not sure for what reason?). Any suggestions on how to solve this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Ramis

[Tom_W_[DE]]

Hi Ramis-

The USB-600x devices are indeed supported by DAQmx Base 3.1 for Mac and LabVIEW 8.5/8.2/8.0.

You are used to seeing the device and channel controls auto-populating because you have been using DAQmx for some time.  In DAQmx Base, however, the physical channel (and other) controls are not populated automatically.  

In order to determine the device number to use, you should run the 'lsdaq' utility from the command line.  It will provide a list of devices that you can reference in your DAQmx Base code.  Please be aware that if you change device configuration (for example, add or remove a USB device from the system), you will need to completely close and re-open LabVIEW for the change to be properly recognized by DAQmx Base.

Hopefully this helps-

[ferramis]

Thanks for your help. As mentioned before I can see the device under the datalogger (see attached image). It works fine, but under Labview I can not see the device. I attach the VI, which works fine under Windows, but gives problems under MAC. I tried to create a task as suggested elsewhere, but I wasn't successful either. Also it still takes very long to open this VI each time, is that normal?
Thanks again.

Ramis

[ferramis]

A strange thing happend. I deleted the physical channel and copied it from an other VI in it, and no the physical channels does at least not become gray. However there are still some problems 🙂

[ferramis]

I now moved to a faster MAC machine and it opens the VI much faster now. It works for some seconds and then stops with the message "Resetting VI USB 92xx bulk reader vi5" and seem to crash.

[Tom_W_[DE]]

Hi Ramis-

A requirement of DAQmx Base (that does not exist in DAQmx) is that you call DAQmx Base Stop Task on a running task before calling DAQmx Base Clear Task.  At the least, you need to insert this in your program.  However, I would suggest some modifications to your program.  

First, you are looping several times and performing some data analysis with each iteration.  You configure the task for continuous operation, but your current method basically uses a finite operation (since you start and stop with each iteration of the loop).  You should either configure the task for finite operation, or move your task creation/start/stop/clear outside of the loop and use truly continuous operation.  Check out the DAQmx Base shipping example "<LabVIEW 8.5>\examples\daqmxbase\dynamic\ai\Cont Acq&Graph Voltage-Int Clk.vi" for the suggested program structure. 

Also, as I mentioned before, the DAQmx Channel controls will not autopopulate in DAQmx Base.  There is no way around this.  The NI Datalogger does not use DAQmx Channel controls and uses a different method for populating the controls.  This method is neither simple nor externally-available and is generally more trouble than it is worth.  You should instead type the channel names in manually to the DAQmx Channel controls.

Please make these changes and let me know if you continue to experience problems.

Thanks-

Message Edited by Tom W [DE] on 04-03-2008 05:43 PM

[ferramis]

Thanks a lot Tom. I was used to LV5 and 6 and there is too much to learn for me 🙂
I tried the example you mentioned, ie. Cont. Acq Graph Voltage INt Clk. and also here I get the error -200220, device identifier is invalid. I checked that the USB card is correctly recognized, I can see it under lsdaq and can even acquire data with the datalogger. The same error comes when running my VI.

Ramis

[Tom_W_[DE]]

Hi Ramis-

Can you please post a screenshot and/or description of the result when you run this VI:  <LabVIEW dir>/vi.lib/_DAQmxBase/Internals/Config/Find Devices.vi ?

Thanks-