Wireless USB DAQ?

[nealpederson]

Has anyone tried using a wireless USB hub with a USB NI DAQ device?

I just tried a Belkin Wireless 4-port USB hub. My USB-6251OEM is recognized
and passes the self-test in MAX. I can then do "On Demand" analog reads in
a test panel. However, as soon as I try any kind of "Finite" or
"Continuous" acquisition my 6251 locks up and I have to unplug it and plug
it back in again to get it to work. I'm doing this at low frequencies like
1kHz/1kSamples so I'm not pushing it in any way. The hub is supposed to be
USB-2.0.

Any similar experiences out there or suggestions to get mine working?

[Nathan]

Greetings Neal,

The Belkin wireless 4 port USB hub is called the "Cable-Free" USB hub because it does not follow the recent official "Wireless USB" standard. We have also tried the product and also had similar issues. The manual of the Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub states that not all types of data transfers are supported.

For advanced high-performance NI USB data acquisition devices that incorporates NI signal streaming, it is essential that all components (including hub and computer) follow closely the USB standard.

NI Signal Streaming: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4636

Hope this answers your question Neal.
Regards,

Nathan Yang | Product Manager | Portable Multifunction Data Acquisition

Message Edited by Nathan on 12-03-2007 08:55 AM

Message Edited by Nathan on 12-03-2007 08:56 AM

[nealpederson]

Thanks Nathan!

It looks like unless I'm doing single point acquisition I won't be able to
use this Hub.

Do you know if there are any other wireless USB hubs that will work for high
speed USB streaming?

[samantham]

Hello,

National Instruments cannot make an official recommendation.  However, like Nathan stated above there is an official Wireless USB Standard that has been created.  Unfortunately, there are no commercial hubs that offer true Wireless USB at this time.  National Instruments is continuously testing wireless hubs as they are released. 

[stilly32]

Hey Neal,

I have yet to find a wireless hub that really meets the full USB requirements for our devices. In most cases, using an extender or remote control of another system are better options. For extenders, I've done some testing with these and had good success - I used two and didn't see much of a performance drop off, even with a couple powered hubs at the end. I believe we did some more extensive testing with these extenders in the past and found they work for most cases but don't seem to gel well with certain USB chipsets, so be warned that they might have a problem with device detection. They worked fine with my Dell GX280 and the Intel USB controller. There are also other extenders out there.  

For a remote system, you can generally pick up a pretty cheap desktop/laptop, load your DAQ system up on that and control it over a network using Remote Desktop or possibly VI Server. This is really the most reliable solution.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any additional questions.

Andrew S

MIO PSE 

Message Edited by stilly32 on 12-03-2007 05:59 PM

[stilly32]

sorry, hit the submit button twice

Message Edited by stilly32 on 12-03-2007 05:57 PM