Product name of NI DAQs

[jeanlucpicard]

Hello,

I have a question regarding NI USB DAQs: my program uses the DAQmx property node "Product Type" and a string match to determine the device name of a daq device. (So instead of remembering which computer assigned Dev1, which assigned Dev2, etc I just have to know if my product is of a given type). 

I normally have only one device hooked to the system.

Does this Product type differ between OEM and non-OEM devices? I have a NI USB-6211 now, which has product name of USB-6211. However, in the future I plan to get hold of some USB-6211 OEM devices and I want to prepare with the program. (I will have only one device per pc at the same time, but the actual device might vary)

Is the OEM product still called as USB-6211 or does it have another product type identifier?

Thanks

[labview12110]

I had a similar question, this was a great solution

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-can-I-read-the-active-plugged-in-DAQs-and-then-send-that-to/m-p/...

I add it to any daq program now in order to make eveythign just plug and play regardless of dev name.

[mikeporter]

It sounds like you might be approaching things a little backwards. The whole point of NIDAQ is that you don't have to care what device is connected. All you have to do is define a virtual channel that gets mapped internally to a physical channel on a physical device. In this way your code doesn't have to care about devices.

It also, by the way, future-proofs your code because your code isn't intimately tied to a particular hardware platform that will -- sooner or later -- become obsolete.

Mike...

[jeanlucpicard]

As I went through daqmx, I came to the conclusion that I need a device name (eg. Dev1) and a channel name (eg. ao1 or ai0:2) to initialize a measurement. However as device names are not necesseraly the same on all computers (some assign a deivce Dev1 some might give Dev2), I cannot hard-code Dev1 into my program, so I had to find other ways to get the device I need, and that's what I came to: finding the device which has the type of my specific device.

However, I am still interested in my initial question as well 🙂

[labview12110]

The thread I linked solves that problem.

[mikeporter]

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@jeanlucpicard wrote:

As I went through daqmx, I came to the conclusion that I need a device name (eg. Dev1) and a channel name (eg. ao1 or ai0:2) to initialize a measurement. However as device names are not necesseraly the same on all computers (some assign a deivce Dev1 some might give Dev2), I cannot hard-code Dev1 into my program, so I had to find other ways to get the device I need, and that's what I came to: finding the device which has the type of my specific device.

However, I am still interested in my initial question as well 🙂

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Yes, I understand that but if you use a virtual channel created in MAX you don't need to worry about knowing either the device or the physical channel.

Mike...

[mikeporter]

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@labview12110 wrote:
The thread I linked solves that problem.

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True, but the issue is only a problem because he is not using the correct approach to channel identification.

Mike...

[jeanlucpicard]

Can I deploy these virtual channels via the app installer in a no-touch way? Because some of the computers will be used by other users, who have no knowledge of labview (and they want to keep it like that), however, I do not have direct physical contact to their computers to do it manually. Handling the measurement program is enough task for some of them, not to talk about fiddling around in MAX.

That's why I tried going on with this approach, because I know the devices they have, but nothing else. (Or is there an at least one-time writable property of the daq device to hold some custom identification data? Because I can get hold of all the daqs without their computers at a time)

[billko]

You have to have some sort of control over these PCs or you're fighting a losing battle.  Do you have a controlled hardware build, or do they just hook up things as they see fit?

[jeanlucpicard]

The DAQ they hook to their PCs is controlled, and in fact I can get hold of all the DAQs since some electronics would be provided with them (and that's why we plan using the 6211-OEMs, since they are easier to fit in boxes). So if there is any way for 'marking' the DAQs I have the chance for that, however, I can't have direct access to most PCs.