USB 6251 DAQmx Error Code -50405 DAQmxErrorPALTransferAborted

[eballer]

I purchased this USB6251 in September 2006.  I had a problem where the DAQ board would not be recognized in Windows XP until I turned the power switch on and off a couple of times.  I was also sporadically receiving the -50405 error during simple hardware timed generations.  I had an RMA done on the device in September of 2007.  The device is now recognized in Windows XP with no problem but the -50405 message is back.  The message that comes with this error code is the following:

"No transfer is in progress because the transfer was aborted by the client.  The operation could not be completed as specified."

As far as I know, I am the client and I never aborted the transfer.  This problem is very annoying since it is sporadic.  It seems to occur after the device is left powered on (but idle) for a couple of days.  After the device errors, if I do a self-test in MAX or reset the device in MAX I get more errors.  Then I have to power off and power on the device for it to function again.  The temperature under device properties in MAX is 52C which I think is high.  The specs for the device say operating environment no more than 45C, but the room the device is located in is at 20C so that shouldn't be a problem.

The tasks that the device is failing on currently are simple one sample writes to analog output or digital outputs.

Please help, this problem has been going on for too long!

[Ana P]

Hi eballer,

Are you using a laptop? Do you know if you are using USB 1.1 or 2.0? Do you see the same behavior in other computers? Does this behavior occur when plugging or unplugging other USB devices while the computer is still on? I’m asking this because making or breaking another USB connection while your data acquisition device is connected may cause that communication error. The I/O controller hub (ICH) is responsible for USB communication on a PC, and this behavior has been observed on computers with different versions of ICH. If you need to plug/unplug USB devices and your PC has one of the ICH versions where the behavior has been observed, one possible solution is to use a powered hub connected to USB 2.0. I hope this is helpful,

[msaxon]

I have a user reporting this exact problem on a system using a USB6250 with DAQmx 8.7.1f3. The computer is an industrial rack-mounting PC, and I don't believe that any USB devices are being plugged in or unplugged whilst the system is running.

Has this problem been solved in later releases of DAQmx?

My user, and the system, are in Australia and I am in UK - so opportunities for debugging are limited.

[eballer]

I think having a powered hub helped this situation.  I had a microscope plugged into other usb ports on the computer and somehow the usb power draw from all these devices was causing a problem.  Try to get a powered usb hub and try to isolate the daq device on a separate usb channel on the motherboard to minimize the chance of conflict.

We ended up getting a PCI daq card and haven't had any issues like this with that one.  In the future, I would only get a usb daq board if there was no other option.

[msaxon]

Thanks for your reply. Hopefully someone from NI will be along soon to provide an expert opinion.

I haven't had too much trouble with these devices, but this is the first application I've created where the device is in use for long periods of time (substantial parts of a day).

[msaxon]

D'oh. I'm actually using a USB6210 - but otherwise the symptoms are the same.

[HeatherBaker]

Hi Martin,

How long does it take for this error to occur?  Is it always at the same point in the code?  Does the error consistently appear?  Is this a new issue that has presented itself?  Has this code worked without issue with a different piece of hardware?  If debugging opportunities are limited, then my first suggestion is to update the driver to see if it resolves the issue.  This will eliminate any issues from previous driver versions and allow other troubleshooting suggestions be implemented if necessary.

DAQmx 9.0.2 can be downloaded from here

[msaxon]

The error occurs, on average, every 3 hours but the interval can be as short as half an hour or it may never happen during a shift (8 hours). The error never occurred whilst we were testing the system here in UK, but we rarely ran it long enough. There is no other hardware set on which the software can run.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of downloading new versions of DAQmx (at 1.3GB a pop - the size is a major inconvenience) just because it might help. I have tried it in the past and it's caused me more problems than I started with; and this particular equipment is working in a configuration-controlled environment where the paperwork involved in 'trying' a new version is substantial. To justify this to my customer I would need to know that there is some documentation somewhere that says this problem has been addressed in a later version - can you help with this at all?

[balki]

Martin,

We did extensive research into this problem over the last several releases. The core of the issue, as far as we can tell, is that sometimes for various reasons, one of the voltage levels on the USB connector drops unexpectedly. This can be from plugging/unplugging other devices connected to the same USB controller or hub or from other random power glitches in your computer. The software detects this voltage drop and interprets that your device has been unplugged and replugged, thus the error message that you are seeing. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to tell the difference between one of these voltage drops and the device being unplugged so a perfect solution in software seems impossible at this point.

In DAQmx 9.0, we implemented a change that should allow you to perform a soft reset on your device after this happens and continue without having to physically remove and replug your USB device into the system. As suggested before, other possible options are getting a powered hub to isolate your devices so those glitches don't happen at all.

This knowledge base may help as well:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/3EA2432762C45B298625734D0061D527

[eballer]

exactly...a pci daq card is much more reliable