Multiple DaqBoards in Dasylab

[JockeR]

According to the manual (which is 6 years old) for the IOTech DaqBoard 1000-series Dasylab can only be used with one DaqBoard at a time.

Is this true for the latest version of Dasylab?

[CJ_Butler__DASYLab_Pro]

The older "standard" driver only supports only IOtech board at a time.

The current "enhanced" driver supports multiple boards, but only one can provide timing. It can be found at IOtech Enhanced Driver for DAQboard/1000.

This is the driver that ships and will install with DASYLab 10 and 11.

[JockeR]

Thanks for your quick answer.

" but only one can provide timing "

Does this mean that one board controls the timing of the others?

[CJ_Butler__DASYLab_Pro · Accepted solution]

It can, but mostly it means that all boards have to use the same sample rate, or a divided-down rate.

Here's what the user guide to the enhanced driver says:

The IOtech enhanced driver uses the standard DASYLab A/D driver interface, which traditionally has supported a
single hardware device, with optional channel expansion cards. The IOtech standard DASYLab driver is an
example of a traditional single device support driver.

The IOtech enhanced DASYLab driver supports conventional single device applications within DASYLab as well.
Additionally, the enhanced driver supports acquiring data from multiple clock synchronized devices through the
standard DASYLab Analog Input module. The enhanced driver accomplishes this by creating a single large virtual
device inside DASYLab. Since from the DASYLab software perspective all input channels are located on a single
virtual device, data from all devices must be returned to DASYLab within a single data stream. The IOtech
Enhanced DASYLab driver and it's supporting DaqCOM driver layer handles the merging of data from multiple
devices into one data stream for DASYLab.

This single virtual device architecture forces from the DASYLab software perspective all input channels to acquire
data at the same sample rate. At the hardware level, devices may be designated as slave devices and acquire data at
even clock divisions of the master clock rate. The IOtech drivers handle padding scans of slow devices in the data
buffer to create a uniform input data stream.

[wolfg]

CJ.

How do you get the two boards to function? I have trouble getting them both recognized Could you give some more details.

Thank you for all the help you have been in the past.

Wolfg.

[CJ_Butler__DASYLab_Pro]

Are you running the enhanced driver?

Step 1: Add your devices using the DAQ Configuration Utility, found in the Control Panel. If this is not there, then you need to reinstall the DASYLab DAQCom drivers from IOtech.

The download is available at www.mccdaq.com/software.aspx. Navigate to the bottom of the page for the IOtech downloads. This will open the FTP location, which has a folder for each board type. Within the DAQBoard 1000 subfolder, you will find the DASYLABDAQCOM2SETUP.exe.

Step 2: Once it's installed, run DASYLab, and run the Measurement - Hardware Setup - Driver.

The dialog box allows you to easily add configured hardware.When you add the second board, it will prompt you and ask if you want to use timing from the master board for the other boards.For details, please refer to the online help for the Driver that is installed at the same time as the driver.

Once configured, then add an Analog Input module - you will be prompted for the correct set of channels.

[wolfg]

Hi JC

I have two questions for you 1. I want to change computers again and I had a lot of trouble the last time to get dasylab to install on another computer and you had the program transferred in no time. Is the new dasylab easier to transfer to another computer.

2. I also want to run a NI DAQCard-6024E together with a Measurement computing USB-1208FS unit in a single single worksheet.  Is that possible.

Wolfgang Paul Kruger

(wolfg)  

[CJ_Butler__DASYLab_Pro]

Hi Wolfgang,

The ease of moving the worksheet depends on versions and drivers, and of course, hardware configuration.

The release version doesn't affect it - but the driver availability may affect it. 

You can run both NI devices and Measurement Computing devices at the same time. If you want to combine the data, for example into one ASCII file, you may find that timing differences may affect you. Each device will use its own clock for the timebase, or you can override it and use software clocking.