error -200016

[Neil.Pate]

Hi there,

I have a PCMCIA DAQCard-6036E installed in a laptop.

For some reason, quite frequently the analogue output just dies. I set the analogue output with the desired data (which is then desired to loop continously), it appears as the correct waveform when monitored with an oscilloscope. I then  don't attempt to write any more data to the DAQ, infact I just leave LabVIEW running, and after some random time the output goes to the last value (i.e. the bit stream I am outputting goes either high or low, I suppose depending on the last outputted bit before the DAQ died).

No error is thrown, however when I attempt to run the VI again sometimes it gives error -200016 (Onboard device memory underflow). It then suggests using DMA instead of interrupts, but I have no idea how to configure this. I have tried to configure the output buffer to  10000 samples  (my data set is less than 3000 samples), but this has no effect on the problem.

Oddly, the problem seems to appear as soon as I use the trackpad of the laptop!

I am using DAQmx, installing version 8.3 does not seem to help.

Has anybody experienced similar issues?

I look forward to hearing any advice.

Neil

[DAQAroundTheClk]

Hi Neil,

Error -200016 will occur when the onboard FIFO on the DAQCard-6036E underflows, that is, when there is no data in the onboard memory from which to generate a sample.  Normally, the card will periodically generate an interrupt to tell DAQmx that it needs to transfer more data to the onboard FIFO.  However, if the computer is handling a large number of interrupts from other devices, it may take longer for the system to get around to filling the FIFO, leading to the condition that you are experiencing.

You can control when the card signals the interrupt through the DAQmx Channel >> Analog Output >> General Properties >> Advanced >> Data Transfer And Memory >> Data Transfer Request Condition property.  The three available values are Onboard Memory Empty, Onboard Memory Half Full or Less, and Onboard Memory Less Than Full.  The interrupt is signalled when the FIFO meets the selected condition.

I do not know the default value of this attribute is, but I would suggest changing the Data Transfer Request Condition and seeing if this has any effect on your application.  I might first try changing it to Onboard Memory Half Full or Less because this provides a good tradeoff between the number of interrupts the card may generate (more interrupts can make the computer seem less responsive to applications and other drivers) and the amount of time the OS has to getting around to putting more samples in the FIFO. 

Secondly, DMA mode is not supported on the DAQCard-6036E, so I would not try changing the Data Transfer Mechanism like the erroneous error (ha!) message says.

Hope this is helpful.
Aaron

[Neil.Pate]

Hi Aaron,

thanks for your help.  I tried changing the Data Transfer Data Request property to all three, but none seemed to fix the problem. This is a really odd error, as I am only trying to write once to the DAQ, not continuously, and there are only 3000 samples to write!

Neil

[Sarah_Coleman_NIUK]

Hi Neil,

The following forum describes similar behaviour to what you're seeing.
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=250&message.id=11761&requireLogin=False

Try some of the suggestions and let me know whether or not they help.

Best regards,

[Neil.Pate]

Hi Sarah,

I think I have figured it out. According to the data sheet, the DAQCard-6036E has a maximum analogue output rate of 1kS/s (system dependant). I am in fact getting using it as high as 14 kS/s! My problem seems to appear when I go higher than this (the app originally ran on a PCI-6052E with 333 kS/s output rate). So as long as I stay within this limit I should be ok

[Sarah_Coleman_NIUK]

Hi Neil,

Glad to hear you got it resolved!

Let me know if you've any more questions.