USB-6009 firmware and DAQmx Base: Mac vs Windows differences

[johnsold]

Several posts related to this topic exist in the Forums. I wish to summarize my experience and the results of some work by NI Support for the benefit of others.

Running the USB-6009 on Mac OS X with DAQmx Base I found errors apparently due to multiplexer settling and input impedance when doing continuous sampling and adjacent channels have significantly different voltages. Some postings suggested that this effect was not seen under DAQmx. I converted my VI to DAQmx and took it to a Windows computer. It ran fine. Then I loaded DAQmx Base on that computer and discovered (with help from NI Support) that DAQmx and DAQmx Base require different firmware on the 6009. I did the firmware switch (Windows only) and it runs fine under DAQmx Base on Windows. Moving back to the Mac, it runs fine there! Back to Windows, switch firmware to DAQmx, works OK. Bring it back to the Mac and it won't work at all with the DAQmx firmware. We do not have an explanation for the initial poor performance.

Summary: USB-6009 uses two different sets of firmware. One set supports DAQmx and the other supports DAQmx Base. From the Mac OS you cannot tell which one is in the device, except that it will not be recognized or will generate an error if it has the DAQmx firmware. The firmware can only be switched by running a program on a Windows computer. NI Support states that all 6009 devices ship with the mx Base firmware. They are working on a modification of the firmware which will work with both types of drivers, but are not indicating when it might be ready.

If the USB-6009 is to be used on multple OSes, stick strictly to DAQmx Base.

I do not have access to a Linux version, but I suspect that similar issues may occur there.

Thanks to Jesse of NI Support for assistance with understanding what is happening here.

Lynn

[dseitz]

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johnsold wrote: NI Support states that all 6009 devices ship with the mx Base firmware. 

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It sounds like installing the mx Base firmware  solved your problem, so I'm confused - does the 6009 ship with that firmware installed, or do we have to find a Windows PC and install it? In other words, should I expect my new 6009 to work out of the box under OSX, or do I have to go through some configuration steps first?

 Thanks for any advice.

[johnsold]

I cannot say for sure.  The one I have worked with had been used on a Windows computer before I hooked to the Mac.  NI tech support should be able to tell you, although you may have to find someone who knows the Mac.  Many of NI's sales people have no Mac experience, so they may not know.  However, they are usually good resources for getting to the right person in tech support.

A recent posting to a thread in the LabVIEW Forum (sorry I don't have a link) suggested that Mac and Linux versions of the firmware changer are available, but I was unable to find it.

Lynn 

[Corby_B]

Hello All,

Thanks for the posts about DAQmxBase and USB devices. I wanted to post the links to some knowledge base articles that talk about the different steps you can take to fix firmware issues. 

Using a USB-6008 / 6009 / 6501 in MAX, and Switching Firmware Between NI-DAQmx and NI-DAQmx Base

Firmware Incompatibility With Different Versions of DAQmx Base.

Let us know if this clears up any questions you may have about DAQmx Base. The utility to do this is attached to the first KB but is only available to do on a windows platform machine.

Cheers!

Corby_B

http://www.ni.com/support 

[Tom_W_[DE]]

Hi dseitz-

Just to bring the discussion up to date in a quick blurb-

Current and future versions of NI-DAQmx and NI-DAQmx Base will use the "same" (may not be the same bit-for-bit, but should be compatible) firmware versions.  For example, NI-DAQmx 8.7.1 and NI-DAQmx Base 3.2 use the same version.  Going forward, we are making a strong attempt to keep NI-DAQmx Base using the same or recent versions as the currently-shipping version of NI-DAQmx.  You can always check the NI-DAQmx Base readme for an officially "compatible" version of NI-DAQmx with a particular version of NI-DAQmx Base, and any "gotchas" for USB.

We still ship the original NI-DAQmx Base firmware on the devices for compatibility with existing user solutions, but we also now ship a firmware update utility with NI-DAQmx Base for Mac, Linux, and Windows so that a Windows machine with NI-DAQmx is no longer required.  This utility is installed in <Programs>/National Instruments/NI-DAQmx Base/bin or similar.

Hopefully this helps-

[dseitz]

Hi Tom, thanks for the pointer to the Firmware updater. When I ran it it reported that my USB-6009 firmware was not up to date so I updated it. Immediately this little dialog popped up:

Hmm, it seems I can't upload images here, only put in links to images posted somewhere else...

Well anyway, It says:

Error-1073807360 occurred at VISA USB Control Out in USB Firmware Autoloader.vi 

Possible reason(s):

VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF0000) Unknown system error (miscellaneous error).

Do you know what that error means?

 It had a CONTINUE button so I clicked it and the firmware updater reported that the firmware was now up to date. 

Also, I had downloaded and installed  NI-DAQmx_Base_3.2.0.dmg 

Then I looked for some VI examples to jump-start me programming the USB-6009.

I finally found and installed this: cont_ao_6008_6009.zip

which contained a VI called Cont Analog Out - SW Timed USB 6008 6009.vi

The first thing that happened when I ran that was that it couldn't find any of the subVIs it needed. I found it was looking for a DAQmx directory so I pointed it at the VIs in Applications/National Instruments/NI-DAQmx Base. I could find all the VIs except one. That one is called DAQmxBase Write (Analog 1D DBL 1Chan 1Samp).vi. 

I found a close match at:

file://localhost/Applications/National Instruments/LabVIEW 8.5/vi.lib/_DAQmxBase/Internals/DAQmxBase Write (Analog 1D DBL NChan 1Samp).vi 

But it is broken because it has an array input and the feed is a scalar. (note the difference in the names, NChan vs. 1Chan)

Several questions:

1) It looks like Cont Analog Out - SW Timed USB 6008 6009.vi  was maybe written under Windows and uses the DAQmx instead of DAQmx Base. Is there any simple way to make it work?

2) Why don't I have DAQmxBase Write (Analog 1D DBL 1Chan 1Samp).vi on my system? 

3) Is there a better example VI or library I can download for the USB6009 on a Mac?

4) And what's up with these two directories:

 Applications/National Instruments/LabVIEW 8.5/vi.lib/_DAQmxBase/

and

 Applications/National Instruments/NI-DAQmx Base

The underscore before the name in the first one makes me wonder if it was disabled by the install of  NI-DAQmx_Base_3.2.0.dmg -? Did perhaps the default location for DAQmx stuff change between the LV8.5 install and the DAQmx Base install? 

This is all confusing, but maybe I've been negligent in reading some documentation somewhere that explains it all. If that's the case, sorry to be wasting your time, but can you tell me what I should read?

Thanks,

Dennis 

[Tom_W_[DE]]

Hi Dennis-

The _DAQmxBase directory under vi.lib contains the actual VIs necessary to program the board using LabVIEW, including the user API.  The NI-DAQmx Base directory under Applications contains utilities and other support files that are non-LabVIEW-specific.

I'm not familiar with the sample VI you mentioned, but I can guess that it is not an NI-DAQmx Base example judging by its references to NI-DAQmx.  Check out the examples for NI-DAQmx Base under Applications/National Instruments/LabVIEW/examples/daqmxbase.  Those shipped examples are written specifically for NI-DAQmx Base and should work with your USB device.

[dawei1]

Could you please tell me where I can download the linux version program to update the firmware? my 6009 has been over written by a MSWindow's machine! and I can not bring it by on MSWindows even with the help of NI support person. Thanks a lot.

[johnsold]

On the Mac it is called FWUpdate.app and is located in Applications:National Instruments:NI-DAQmx Base:Bin.  Perhaps the name is the same on the linux version.

They do not make it easy to find.  I could not find any reference in the Help files for LV or DAQmx Base.  Many NI support people do not seem to be very aware of DAQmx Base and the issues surrounding it.

If you cannot find it by name, try asking the NI support person for it by name.

Lynn 

[dawei1]

Thanks a lot. I found the FWUpdate but could not figure out how go back to the original (shipped) firmware.  All it does is to bring the firmware update simillar to MSwindow.