ExpressCard DAQ

[Redline]

We just purchased a new Laptop with the ExpressCard Slots. Unfortunately, we still have a 6024 PCMCIA card for our older laptop, and it doesn't seem that NI has made any DAQ cards with the ExpressCard slot configuation. Am I wrong on that? I would appreciate any recommendations on getting my new laptop running a basic DAQ acquisition...either with an adapter for the PCMCIA card (if there is one available) or any other suggestion.

thank you

[MickeyD]

Hi,

You are correct about there not being a NI device designed to work with the ExpressCard slot.  There are converters that promise to provide the backwards compatibility here.

http://www.duel-systems.com/products/adapters.aspx

http://www.rfwel.com/shop/catalog/PC-Card-PCMCIA--Cardbus-to-Express-Card-Converter-p-745.html

NI has not tested these devices though, so I would not be able to say if you would get the same full functionality.

If you were looking for a new solution to replace the 6024 I would point to our new USB M series bus powered devices.

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/203092

They provide better counter circutry than the PCMCIA 6024, and they still maintain the same high Analog input performance.

The USB bus provides a great way to have a ready to go DAQ solution for your laptop.

Please let me know if there is any other info I can give you regarding this issue.

Have a great day,

Michael D
Applications Engineering
National Instruments

[Redline]

Mickey,

Thanks for the post and suggestions. I'll take a look and see what is most cost-effective and viable for our situation. I'll post another reply with an update once we've made a decision, especially if we choose to get an adapter. I'm sure others would be curious to know if the adapter works well.

[USFphy]

I can verify that DAQCard-6036E wirks with the DuelAdapter.
I am using NIDAQ 7.2.0f1 and DuelAdapter Version 1.0.0 software.  I had to upgrade from NIDAQ 6.9 to 7.2 In order to resolve the "card is not responding to first IRQ" issue.

SETUP:
DELL Inspiron 1720 (windows XP)
DuelAdapter (driver ver 1.0.0)
DAQCard 6036E
NIDAQ 7.2.0f1
Tested with LabView 6.1

[kmone]

I have a similar configuration as 'USFphy', but my DaqCard is a 6062E and the system crashes when I install any Nidaq 7.x driver on the Inspiron 1720 running with XP. A  Vista install on a second hard drive on the same machine using Nidaq 8.6.1 works just fine. Is there a way to change the IRQ for this card? Is the IRQ for this card fixed, so it runs into IRQ conflicts with XP? The software we have written requires XP and Nidaq 7.x for now and we try to avoid recompiling with a different Nidaq version than 7.x. Any ideas?

Any help is highly appreciated.

[mallorim]

Hi Kmone,

Welcome to the forums. With regards to changing the IRQ for specific cards, you can follow the procedure in the appropriste Knowledge Base Document: Disabling Interrupt Request (IRQ) settings for National Instruments Hardware in Windows or DAQPad-1200 Device Not Responding to First IRQ Level Using Windows. Or you could possibly see your operating system's user manual for information on assigning specific IRQ levels to a hardware device.

I have some further questions for you though:

1)     What specific version of DAQ are you using, 7.what?

2)     Was you program developed on another computer with the DAQ driver and you are trying to install the software on this Inspiron so you can move it there and run it?

3)     Could you describe what occurs when you say that your system crashes upon the installation of the DAQ driver?

4)     Have you tried chaging the IRQ in Windows Device Manager as pointed to in the above Knowledge Base Documents?

5)     Have you disabled the ACPI extraction layer? This might cause issues since it automatically manages the IRQ numbers.

Hope this information helps, Mallori M.

[Highway-Star]

I have a new HP Pavillion with duo-core processor and  meas. automation explorer doesn't see it.  I'm using LabVIEW 7.0 and have tried NI-DAQ 6.6 through 7.2.  I'm using the DUEL adapter mentioned in this thread.  Vista sees the card but can't find the driver.  It doesn't show up in the meas explorer data neighborhood.  Looking at NI's knowledgebase says NI doesn't support Vista and the DAQCARD 6062E.  This sucks because I bought the laptop to replace a dead one and the only thing I use it for is data acquisition.  I can't afford to buy a new card everytime Microsuck changes their operating system.  Does NI plan  to make a driver to accommodate this setup?  I have spent miilions of Lockheed's money on NI's products but since this one is out of my pocket, it's enough to make me go elsewhere the next time I'm instrumenting a new jet at work.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You can read this recent response about adding Vista support for pcmcia cards in DAQmx. You will certainly never see any more updates to tradiitonal daq. You will face another problem though. Your old version of LabVIEW is not even supported by the latest version of DAQmx.

[johnsackett]

I would like to add some results that may be useful. We have made the DAQCard-6024E work with an ExpressCard Slot. Here are the details:

1. We used a new Dell Vostro 1510 Laptop with 54mm ExpressCard slot, running Windows XP.

1a. Our customer also used a Dell XPS1730 laptop, running Windows XP.
2. We used the Duel Adapter installed according to their instructions

3. We used NI-DAQmx 8.8 and LabVIEW 8.6.1
4. We plugged in a DAQCard-6024E into the Duel Adapter.
5. All worked fine.

Notes:

1. It also works with Traditional NI-DAQ 7.4.4

2. It does not work with NI-DAQ 6.9.3 because the card does not respond to the first IRQ level. This is a known issue with NI-DAQ 6.9.3 and new laptops. This means that the DAQCard-700 is not supported.

3. We have not tried it with Windows Vista or a 34mm ExpressCard slot.

4. On Windows XP it works with Duel Adaptor driver version 1.0.0 or 1.0.1