PCI 6602 4th counter Interrupt issues

[wade75]

I am using a PCI 6602 Counter timer board reading 4 counters.  I realize that the 6602 only has 3 DMA channels and the 4th needs to be triggered off interupts.  However when the program is running and I Open a windows application such as Windows Explorer it generates an error on the Interrupt counter task.  The first three tasks are configured to trigger off the AI Sample clock on a PCI Multifunction A/D board through a RTSI.  I set the Daq loop Execution Priority to Time critical High Priority.  However I'm not sure this overides Windows Priority tasks.

[enderWiggin10]

Hi wade75,

There is no direct way that we can control the processing priority in the OS.  You are doing the right thing by specifying the priority in LabVIEW.  Something you might try is setting the priority in Windows Task Manager as well, could be worth a shot. 

The most viable option would be to opt for an X Series Card, the user manual best describes the bus system, allowing for 8 DMA channels, along with 4 counters that are each capable of finite pulse trains and have their own DMA channel.

Best,

[wade75]

Thanks Adam for the Reply,  I will try setting the priority in windows task manager.  Howere is there a way to implement this within the Labview Program to have it automatically set the priority through maybe application property nodes?

[enderWiggin10]

Hi wade75,

If this is possible, you would want to accomplish this by calling into a Windows dll, perhaps the user32.dll.  I am not sure if this is possible, but this is where I would look.  More information can be found about the available functions in the dll at Microsoft's website.  Here is a tutorial that walks through how to call a dll in LabVIEW.

Best,

[wade75]

Adam,  I switched the windows priority level for Labview in task manager, however it didn't seem to fix the problem.  I switched it all the way to realtime.  If I switch the affinity to only run off one processor I do not seem to have this issue.  I have had problems like this on other PC systems using analog Outputs of two seperate cards that were parallel using the rtsi cable for triggering only this was happening when I would plug in a thumb drive into a USB port.  Same thing if I only use one cpu the problem goes away.  I seem to solve that problem by disabling all but on USB hub.  However this is not fixing my current issue.  I wanted to try and change the priority of windows explorer to low priority but I'm not sure what it is labeled as under task manager.