What's New in NI-DAQmx 8.6

Each release of the NI-DAQmx driver software offers new software features and support for new hardware devices in addition to the existing functionality of the preceding version. An upgrade to the latest version of NI-DAQmx is a FREE upgrade to your entire data acquisition (DAQ) application and will both improve performance of your current application and increase productivity when creating new DAQ applications. This document focuses on the new features of NI-DAQmx 8.6.

LabVIEW 8.5 Support

NI-DAQmx 8.6 includes support for the newest member of the LabVIEW family, LabVIEW 8.5. With LabVIEW 8.5, scientists and engineers can take advantage of the increased processing power of multicore processor technology. LabVIEW is multithreaded and inherently parallel. When used with a multithreaded driver such as NI-DAQmx, the LabVIEW compiler automatically will find the parallelism in the code and assign them to run on separate processors to optimize operation.

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LabVIEW 8.5 includes many other features which new and existing LabVIEW users will find helpful. To learn more, visit www.ni.com/labview85. Additionally, NI-DAQmx 8.6 includes support for LabVIEW versions 7.1, 8.0, 8.2, and 8.5.

 

LabVIEW SignalExpress 2.5 Support

National Instruments released new LabVIEW software for data logging that ships with every NI-DAQmx supported DAQ device, LabVIEW SignalExpress LE.  This new software allows users to acquire, view, and log data to ASCII text files or export to NI DIAdem or Microsoft Excel for post processing. This free software is included when you receive your NI-DAQmx 8.6 driver CD or when you download NI-DAQmx 8.6.

For more advanced data logging, analysis, and report generation, you can use the full version of LabVIEW SignalExpress.  The free download of LabVIEW SignalExpress includes a free 30-day evaluation of the full software package. This software package includes the following:

• More than 200 analysis functions ranging from statistical calculations to waveform processing
• Customizable reports including graph snapshots
• Data views in a variety of formats such as graphs, charts, gages, meters, and thermometers
• Alarms that can trigger logging, emails, TTL, or analog outputs

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You can easily convert your LabVIEW SignalExpress projects into LabVIEW code with a few simple clicks. Using the LabVIEW development environment, you can turn your LabVIEW SignalExpress data-logging projects into an advanced data acquisition system or simply add more customizable features. LabVIEW SignalExpress is included in LabVIEW Full and Professional development systems, Developer Suite, or can be purchased as a standalone package.

Multicore and Multithreaded Performance Optimization

Along with LabVIEW 8.5, NI-DAQmx is now optimized for multicore systems. Upon original creation, NI-DAQmx was introduced to provide a new easy-to-use, high-performance driver that would allow the next generation of data acquisition systems to keep pace with emerging PC technologies. One of the performance improvements of NI-DAQmx is allowed multithreaded access. The ability to access the driver from multiple threads unblocks system bottlenecks and can greatly improve performance in DAQ applications. With the emergence of multicore PCs, NI-DAQmx now allows I/O tasks to execute in parallel on different cores through multithreaded operation.

Additionally, NI-DAQmx leverages the new multithreaded support added in LabVIEW Real-Time 8.5  providing greater performance on multi-core real-time targets.  Multiple NI-DAQmx real-time tasks can execute in parallel on different cores allowing real-time DAQ applications to fully utilize the multi-core architecture of modern processors.

To learn more about how National Instruments optimized NI-DAQmx for multicore performance, read the white paper Multithreaded Features of LabVIEW Functions and Drivers.

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LabVIEW RT Support for PXI Express M Series DAQ

With the release of the NI PXIe-8130 embedded controller, LabVIEW RT now supports PXI Express. In addition, NI-DAQmx 8.6 now includes LabVIEW RT support for the NI PXIe-6251 and 6259, high-speed PXI Express M Series devices.

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Driver Signing on Windows XP for Select NI USB Data Acquisition Products

For the first time, the NI-DAQmx driver is signed in accordance with Microsoft policies for driver signing. In addition to assuring system security, this new feature allows for select NI USB DAQ devices to be installed on a Windows XP machine without requiring Administrator privileges or manually accepting a Windows prompt to install a device driver. In many situations including academic labs and using a machine as a guest, it is not possible to get Administrator privileges.  A signed NI-DAQmx driver now alleviates the situation as long as the driver was originally installed by an Administrator. Supported devices include:

• NI CompactDAQ and all supported modules
• USB-6008 and 6009
• USB-6501
• USB-9162 (USB sleeve for C Series modules)
• Bus-Powered USB M Series (USB-621x)
• Wall-Powered USB M Series (USB-622x and USB-625x)
• Vernier SensorDAQ^TM 

Digital Signing for Windows Vista x86 and x64

For Windows Vista x64 Edition, Microsoft requires a digital signature on all drivers. By requiring new, signed drivers, Microsoft aims to reduce failures and improve stability by shining a spotlight on vendor responsibility for bugs. With Windows Vista x86, administrators can install unsigned drivers, but Microsoft continues to discourage their use. All NI-DAQmx data acquisition devices are digitally signed for Windows Vista x86 and x64. With digital signing, all devices will install without user prompts or Administrator privileges.  PCI devices will install automatically upon start up, and USB devices will install when plugged in and (if necessary) powered on.

New Features for NI-DAQmx and Text-Based Languages

NI-DAQmx works with a variety of software from graphical – LabVIEW, LabVIEW SignalExpress, LabVIEW RT, DIAdem – to text-based – C/C++, C# and Visual Basic .NET, and Visual Basic 6.0. To coincide with recent additions to Measurement Studio, DAQ Assistant code generation for Measurement Studio is now improved to work with new API properties. In addition, NI-DAQmx now includes the following new shipping example programs for C# .NET, Visual Basic .NET, and LabWindows/CVI:

Measurement Studio

1. Gen Mult Current Updates-Int Clk
2. Cont Gen Current Updates Wfm-Int Clk
3. Meas Two Edge Separationg-Buffered-Continuous
4. Meas Pulse Width-Buffered-Sample Clock-Cont
5. Multi-Function-Synch AI-Read Dig Chan

LabWindows/CVI

1. Acq Wheatstone Bridge Samples-9237

NI-DAQmx includes more than 128 example programs C/C++, 78 for C# and Visual Basic .NET, and 7 for Visual Basic 6.0. An additional 85 examples and 44 technical tutorials are available online at the NI Developer Zone. In total, more than 300 examples and tutorials are available for using NI-DAQmx in text-based languages. In addition, NI-DAQmx installs with complete reference help including NI-DAQmx functions and NI-DAQmx properties for text-based application development.

Watch a webcast on using DAQ in text-based languages with Measurement Studio:

• Visual C# .NET Interactive DAQ Tutorial
• Visual Basic .NET USB DAQ Demonstration
• Visual Basic 6.0 and USB DAQ Demonstration

Runtime Deployment Options Available

Many deployed LabVIEW and NI LabWindows/CVI data acquisition applications do not require support for all of the functionality of the NI-DAQmx driver and utilities. With NI-DAQmx 8.6, you can deploy five different runtime versions of NI-DAQmx, ranging from the full-featured driver to a size-optimized runtime engine.

With NI-DAQmx 8.6, you can either build the different runtime engines yourself while building an installer for your LabVIEW application, or you can download one of the different runtimes from ni.com. The following sections describe the five different NI-DAQmx runtime engines and provide possible use cases for each version. 

Complete the following steps to access the custom runtime capabilities:

1. On your development machine, create and save your NI-DAQmx application into a new LabVIEW project. Save the LabVIEW project.
2. From the Project Explorer, right-click Build Specifications and select New > Installer.
3. In the installer properties window, click Additional Installers under Categories.
4. Select NI-DAQmx 8.6 or later, and select the Installer Type from the drop-down list in the top-right of the window.

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Full

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress

Use Case: This is the default selection when building a custom installer that includes NI-DAQmx. Use this version if you need to do additional development in NI-DAQmx on your target machine.

Runtime

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress
• Application development environment (ADE) support for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and NI Measurement Studio

Use Case: If you are deploying your NI-DAQmx application into an executable that requires no further development, and you used the DAQ Assistant in the development of the application, you can use this option when creating the NI-DAQmx installer.

Runtime 2

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress
• Application development environment (ADE) support for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio
• The DAQ Assistant

Use Case: If you are deploying your NI-DAQmx application into an executable that requires no further development, and you did not use the DAQ Assistant in the development of the application, you can use this option when creating the NI-DAQmx installer.

Runtime 3

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress
• Application development environment (ADE) support for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio
• The DAQ Assistant
• NI-DAQmx documentation

Use Case: If you are deploying your NI-DAQmx application into an executable that requires no further development, you did not use the DAQ Assistant in the development of the application, and you do not require NI-DAQmx documentation including help files on your target machine, you can use this option when creating the NI-DAQmx installer.

Runtime 4

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress
• Application development environment (ADE) support for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio
• The DAQ Assistant
• NI-DAQmx documentation
• LabVIEW Real-Time support

Use Case: If you are deploying your NI-DAQmx application into an executable that requires no further development, you did not use the DAQ Assistant in the development of the application, you do not require NI-DAQmx documentation including help files on your target machine, and the application will not be deployed to a LabVIEW Real-Time target, you can use this option when creating the NI-DAQmx installer.

Runtime 5

This distribution installs all the driver software included in NI-DAQmx but does not include:

• NI LabVIEW SignalExpress
• Application development environment (ADE) support for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, and Measurement Studio
• The DAQ Assistant
• NI-DAQmx documentation
• LabVIEW Real-Time support
• Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX)

Use Case: If you are deploying your NI-DAQmx application into an executable that requires no further development; you did not use the DAQ Assistant in the development of the application; you do not require NI-DAQmx documentation including help files on your target machine; the application will not be deployed to a LabVIEW Real-Time target; and you do not require MAX for such things as troubleshooting installation, setting up device configurations including device names, tasks, scales, and channels, you can use this option when creating the NI-DAQmx installer.

Additional Support for Localized Languages

Increasing support for localized languages is a key priority for NI-DAQmx releases. In NI-DAQmx 8.6, in addition to updating all support for French, German, Japanese, and Korean; additional DAQ device documentation is now localized in Japanese.  So far, 55 DAQ device documents including NI CompactDAQ, USB DAQ, and M Series have been localized for Japanese. These documents are included in the NI-DAQmx CD distribution on Disk 2 of 2 and can be accessed through the Device Documentation Browser (DeviceDocsStart.exe).

337 Devices Supported

NI-DAQmx now supports 337 devices. The devices support include 38 C Series I/O Modules for NI CompactDAQ and 48 USB Devices. More than 109 PXI devices are now supported in NI-DAQmx 8.6. Refer to the NI-DAQ 8.6 Readme for a complete list of supported devices.

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Newly supported devices include:

 

 

 

NI PXI-4496	16 AI channel, 204.8 kS/s, 24-bit, AC-coupled, IEPE DSA device
NI PXI-4498	16 AI channel, 204.8 kS/s, 24-bit, AC-coupled, IEPE DSA device
NI USB-6225 Mass Termination	250 kS/s, 16-bit, 80 channel M Series device
NI USB-6225 Screw Terminal	250 kS/s, 16-bit, 80 channel M Series device
NI USB-6255 Mass Termination	1.25 MS/s, 16-bit, 80 channel M Series device
NI USB-6255 Screw Terminal	1.25 MS/s, 16-bit, 80 channel M Series device
NI USB-9237	4-channel, 24 bit half/full-bridge analog input module

TEDS Sensor Support for USB C Series Devices

NI-DAQmx now supports TEDS (Transducer Electronic Data Sheets) sensors with the USB-9233, 4-channel IEPE module, and the new USB-9237, 4-channel bridge-based module. TEDS sensors, based on the IEEE 1451.4 standard, reduce the time and challenges associated with sensor configuration and management. The standard establishes a universally accepted method of giving sensors plug-and-play capability, similar to the plug-and-play capability of a USB mouse and your computer. The combination of TEDS sensors with USB data acquisition gives the user a true plug-and-play experience all the way from the sensor to the computer.

Learn more about TEDS at ni.com/teds.

 

More than 15 Customer-reported Issues Fixed

NI-DAQmx 8.6 contains fixes for more than 15 issues reported by customers.  These fixes include improved system streaming performance for large channel count applications involving the PXI-4462 and increased accuracy for USB-6008 and USB-6009 single-ended measurements.  For a full list of customer reported issues, refer to the NI-DAQ 8.6 Readme.  Customer feedback is essential in improving our products.  To report a bug with National Instruments products, please visit ni.com/support  and click on Ask an Engineer.

Over 100 Additional Usability and Documentation Improvements

Based on customer feedback and NI employee usage of NI-DAQmx, over 100 additional improvements to usability and documentation are implemented with NI-DAQmx 8.6. As an example, in the DAQ Assistant, you can now use the Description tab to enter user-defined documentation for your channel or scale. You can save this documentation and access it programmatically. Other improvements include improved user interface and additions/clarifications to documentation. We appreciate and value your feedback. If you would like to contribute additional feedback for consideration in future releases of NI-DAQmx, please visit ni.com/contact.

Previous Versions of NI-DAQmx

NI-DAQmx 8.5  (March 2007)

• 322 data acquisition devices supported
• Windows Vista 64- and 32-bit support
• LabVIEW SignalExpress LE: Interactive data-logging software included free with NI-DAQmx
• Support for 36 new USB, PCI Express, and PXI devices
• TEDS sensor support for NI CompactDAQ
• SCXI calibration support for seven additional modules

 

NI-DAQmx 8.3 (August 2006)

• 286 data acquisition devices supported
• NI LabVIEW 8.2 support
• PXI Express M Series DAQ support
• NI USB M Series device support
• Industrial M Series support
• Additional NI-DAQmx custom installer types
• Programmatic device specification querying
• New S Series features - single task referring to multiple devices
• Human-readable DAQ configuration file
• Usability and improvement enhancements to DAQ Assistant
• LabVIEW support for synchronous and asynchronous DAQ events

NI-DAQmx 8.1 (April 2006)

• 254 data acquisition devices supported
• CompactDAQ chassis and C Series I/O module support
• SCXI calibration
• New S Series feature
• Additional NI-DAQmx installer types
• New localized documentation (French, German, and Japanese)

NI-DAQmx 8.0 (January 2006)

• 229 data acquisition devices supported
• NI-DAQmx I/O Server
• NI-DAQmx Device Monitor
• Human-readable configuration import/export from MAX
• Improvements to DAQ Assistant
• LabVIEW support for events
• Querying of device capabilities
• Report generation capability from MAX
• Support for LabVIEW Project

NI-DAQmx 7.5 (July 2005)

• 219 data acquisition devices supported
• Support for USB DAQ devices
• Support for MicrosoftVisual Basic 6.0

NI-DAQmx 7.4 (March 2005)

• 203 data acquisition devices supported
• NI-DAQmx simulated devices 
• Virtual channel calibration 
• Digital pattern triggering for digital I/O
• Burst handshake timing for digital I/O
• GPS timestamp measurements
• Connection diagram HTML report generation
• Programmatically saving tasks, channels, and scales 
• Digital power-up states for M Series devices
• Data compaction for accelerated streaming to disk 
• Software events for asynchronous notification of DAQ events 
• VI Logger Lite data-logging software is included for FREE

NI-DAQmx 7.3 (August 2004)

• 149 data acquisition devices supported
• Support for multiple measurement types in one task
• Support for M Series devices

NI-DAQmx 7.2 (April 2004)

• 130 data acquisition devices supported
• Support for virtual and hardware TEDS plug-and-play sensors
• LabVIEW Real-Time support
• Connection diagrams in DAQ Assistant to help connect signals to DAQ hardware
• Localization in French, German, and Japanese

NI-DAQmx 7.1 (October 2003)

• 83 data acquisition devices supported
• Accelerometer, LVDT, and RVDT measurements added to DAQ Assistant

NI-DAQmx 7.0 (May 2003)

• 60 data acquisition devices supported
• DAQ Assistant  wizard for simplified creation of data acquisition tasks
• Code Generation using LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, and LabWindows/CVI
• Simplified application program interface in LabVIEW using polymorphism
• Multithreaded I/O performance 
• Pin-point error diagnostics - error chaining to show exactly where an error occurs
• Improved state model for stability and speed 

 

Related Links:

National Instruments Data Acquisition Products

Reader Comments | Submit a comment »

publish date should probably be 2007, not 2008
- May 24, 2008