Measurement studio or not? Simple aquisition and DSP from 6008, but require C# interface

[Sempher]

Hi,

I'm currently getting aquinted with the DAQmx driver for the first time as I'm working on a project which basically requires som data aquisition from a NI USB 6008, some FFT and simple analasis and plotting of the signals. We're working in C# because of the user interface requirements, and I am currently in the situation where I need to make a decition about how we're going to implement it. Basically from the Measurenemt studio I need the FFT functionality, and the graphs. It occured to me that it perhaps was overkill to use Measurement studio, as I fairly easily could implemt a fft and get some freeware C# library containing the graphs. However the hourly cost quickly exceeds the price of the professionel edition of Measurement studio I need. However I persued the idea a bit further and wanted to implement a simple application using the DAQmx's C# interface without Measurement studio. Browsing the webpage implies that this is possible, however all examples are measurement studio examples. And when I open the Ni DAQmx .net 2.0 framework help, I can only filter Measurement studio C++, .NET and VB. If a interface to the driver is supported via C# I would assume to have a doc section for C# native DAQmx functions? I really have the feling that I'm not grasping the concept here. I would really appreciate any help, both comments on weather Measurements Studio appears overfill, but most important on weather or not C# is supported in the DAQmx driver without Measurement std. And hence where the reference and documentaiton resides.

Best regards

Simon

[JonathanN]

Hi Simon,

The short-answer to your question is YES, you can perform data acquisition in C# without using Measurement Studio. 

To do this, you can use the Measurement Studio DAQmx .NET API.  This is far and away the easiest API to use to program DAQ cards in C#.  This API is included in the DAQmx installer and does not require you to purchase Measurement Studio.  However, without Measurement Studio you do not get the benefit of the DAQ Assistant integrated into Visual Studio .NET. The DAQ Assistant, when integrated into Visual Studio .NET, allows you to graphically configure your DAQ tasks, channels, and scales. It then generates a Visual C# class, referred to as a DAQmx task class. The DAQmx task class includes code that programmatically configures the measurement task that you created interactively. Additionally, the DAQ Assistant also generates a .NET DAQ component that uses the generated DAQmx task class.

When you install DAQmx, even though you might not have Measurement Studio, it will create a folder in C:\Program Files\National Instruments\ called MeasurementStudioVS2005 (or possible MeasurementStudioVS2003depending upon which .NET Framework support option you chose when installing DAQmx). This folder will consist of the DAQmx .NET assembly as well as examples that don’t require Measurement Studio. These examples are located inside the MeasurementStudioVS2005 folder under \DotNET\Examples\DAQmx.

To address your help and documentation issue, the installed documentation contains the NI-DAQmx API overview, measurement tasks and concepts, and function reference.  This help is fully integrated into the Visual Studio .NET documentation. To view the NI-DAQmx .NET documentation, go to Start » Programs » National Instruments » NI-DAQ » NI-DAQmx .NET Reference Help. Expand NI Measurement Studio Help » NI Measurement Studio .NET Class Library » Reference to view the function reference. Expand NI Measurement Studio Help » NI Measurement Studio .NET Class Library » Using the Measurement Studio .NET Class Libraries to view conceptual topics for using NI-DAQmx with Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET.  Even though Measurement Studio isn't installed, the topics still use the Measurement Studio name.

Continued onto the next post......

[JonathanN]

continued from previous post...

In the Using the Measurement Studio .NET Class Libraries section, you will notice you can select a sub-category entitled Measurement Studio NI-DAQmx .NET Examples. This section describes a little bit about each example that is installed.

If you are not sure whether or not you would like to use our analysis or user interface components and features, why not try and download the evaluation version of Measurement Studio. This way you can see what we offer that may help your application.

Hope this clears things up. I know it can be somewhat confusing sometimes.

Best Regards,

[Sempher]

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you very much for the comprehensive answer, truely appreciated.

Best regards

Simon