I am trying to read the digital outputs of multiple accelerometers using SPI communication on an NI 9401. In the "NI 9401 Getting Started Guide" there is a section that describes how to connect for SPI. I have attached a picture of the figure used to describe the connections. In this figure, there is only one SS/CS on DIO0.
I have two questions. First, can I also use DIO3 as an additional SS/CS pin so that I can double the number of devices I can communicate with? Second, I have read about daisy-chaining slave devices so that I can use one SS/CS pin to communicate with multiple devices. I would like to get data from four accelerometers simultaneously. The attached image shows a single MISO line at DIO4. Could I also use DIO5, 6, and 7 to get data from all 4 accelerometers at the same time?
I would like to have two SS/CS pins, each connected to two pairs of accelerometers that are daisy-chained, and then have all four send data back along their own individual MISO lines. Is this possible? Have I drastically misunderstood how SPI works?
