board level diagnostics for 5660, 5690 and 2546

[ness4]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to do some sort of board level diagnostic check on the 5660, 5690 and/or 2546?  We'd like to be able to run a VI that checks to make sure all the hardware is functioning correctly.  I've found some self test VIs but not for these devices.  😞

Thank you very much in advance.

[Speedy_Badger]

Hello ness4,

If you have the correct drivers installed for each of your devices, you should be able to find the corresponding self-test VIs for use in your application. For instance, the self-test VI for the 5660 can be found in the NI-RFSA driver palette located in Measurement I/O. The self-test VI for the 2546 can be found in the NI-Switch palette, and the self-test VI for the 5690 can be found with the corresponding NI-5690 driver VIs.

Let me know if you have any trouble finding these VIs.

Regards,

[ness4]

Chris,

Thank you so much for your reply!  I found the Self-Tests for NFSA and for NI-SWITCH, THANK YOU!

Under Instrument I/O -> Instrument Drivers -> ni5690 all I see are Initialize, Configure Gain, Close, Configure Path, Get Actual Gain and Get Temp.  Should I see a self-test there?

Thanks again!  I really appreciate your assistance!
Vanessa

[Speedy_Badger]

Hi Vanessa,

I am glad that you were able to find the appropriate VIs for the RFSA and Switch cases. I went ahead and installed the drivers for the 5690 and confirmed that there is in fact no Self-Test VI for the 5690. A possible work around would be to initialize the device and then close it right away and then handle the errors that correspond to a malfunction of the device.  For instance, you could use a case structure with cases that correspond to various error codes that come up when the board isn't functioning properly, and then use those cases to direct your program flow accordingly.

Let me know if I need to clarify anything or this doesn't work for your application.

Regards,

[ness4]

Hold the phone .. might have answered my own question....

Message Edited by ness4 on 01-30-2008 01:44 PM

[ness4]

Chris, one more question.

Is it true that the 5660 uses the ni-5660 API but the 5661 uses the ni-RFSA API?  I don't think I can use RFSA with our 5660.  😞  In that case, would you suggest the same solution as the 5690?  Also, why is it that some APIs have self-tests and other don't?  Is this a new addition for your most recent hardware?

Thanks!

[Speedy_Badger]

Hi Vanessa,

You are correct, the 5660 requires the use of the 5660 drivers rather than RFSA. I apologize if I misled you there. It also appears there is no Self-test for this device so I would definitely attempt to implement the alternative work around for the 5660 as well.

The reason why the 5660 and other older devices do not have the self-test functionality is due to the underlying driver API they are derived from. For instance, the 5660 used the 5620 Digitizer which is fundamentally based on the Traditional DAQ driver. The 5661 on the other hand uses the 5142 Digitizer which is supported on an API (RFSA) derived from the DAQmx driver. You can verify this in Measurement and Automation Explorer by where the device is listed. Newer devices will be listed as NI-DAQmx Devices, while older devices will be listed as Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) Devices. Furthermore, if you right click on a traditional DAQ device in MAX, the self-test option will not be present, while the NI-DAQmx device will have this feature.

Again, I apologize for the confusion between the RFSA and 5660 drivers. Hopefully this clears things up a bit.

Regards,

[ness4]

Thanks, Chris!  I does clear things up although I was admittedly looking for a different answer!  🙂

THANKS!