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I am using the USB-6501 to drive solenoids in 3 sets, one set for each port (0, 1 & 2). Each set contains 7 solenoids. Each set must fire simultaneously so I send a port command using DAQmx. My question is modifying the port configuration so instead of 8 bits the port can take just 7 bits and leave 1 bit for a digital input. Otherwise I need an additional I/O device for 1 signal.
As the manual states, you can set the direction on a pin by pin basis so you will not need another card. Since you did not mention the programming language you are using, you should refer to the examples that get installed with the driver.
I did read about pin by pin assignments, but I am firing the entire port with a byte value so they all fire simultaneously. I am using Labview 8.6 Pro.
Why are you doing the whole port? You can simply select lines 0:6 and write to them all at the same time. Ther is a shipping example called Write Dig Chan that shows one way to do it. The data written is Boolean array but you can also a U8. The line grouping option of the DAQmx Create Channel allows you to specify 'one channel for all lines'. If you use the DAQ Assistant, you would also select line output and then select multiple lines.