Acquire and save digital signals with USB-6366 and daqmx

[BAES13]

I'm using labview & signalexpress 2010 with daqmx 9.6.1 and a USB-6366 with a BNC-2110 adaptor.

I'm simply trying to acquire analog and digital signals and save them to text files. 

The acquire analog signals part seems to work ok (for 2 channels, but 8 makes SE crash).

For the digital part, under the steps for save to ascii, there's only analog signals.  I pick this and add the digital acquisition for the input.

It only saves 1 digital channel to the output file. 

Is there some other way to acquire and save digital signals at the same time as acquiring analog signals?

Thanks.

[Ryan-OC]

Here are a few questions that you might want to consider.

What environment are you using? LabVIEW or Signal Express (I would recommend LabVIEW for what you are trying to do). SE is easier to learn at first but is very limited. I can give you some examples to work from if you want. There are also great classes that NI offers.

What sample rate are you trying to achieve. The 6366 is capable of blazing fast sample rates, even with multi channel reading. You could be maxing out your RAM.

Are you trying to synchronize anything this if not done right will cause things to slow down and max out your computing resources very quickly.

[BAES13]

I'm trying to use SignalExpress.  I'd like to get away with using SignalExpress LE so I'm not bound to using only PCs here that have the Labview/SE package installed.  We use data acquisition units many places with this lab.  There's not always a labview equipped PC available.

I also think the Labview interface is horrible.  I just need to get the data saved as text files and I can take it from there.

I'm trying to acquire 3M samples over 60 seconds at a 50k rate.  It works for 2 channels, but trying to use all 8 makes SE just die; sometimes you don't even get an error dialog box. 

I just have the execution to do 1 pulse, then the analog acquisition and the digital acquisition, then go into the save to text file steps.

Shouldn't there be a relatively simple way to just acquire all 8 analog channels and, say, 10 digital channels at the same time, then just dump them to text files? 

Maybe I'd be better off just writing something in C?  That would be a pain because the configuration would need to be changed for different tests...  

I don't have a problem with the SE interface, but that fact that it crashes, with and without error messages, if the planets aren't aligned is pretty pathetic as far as I'm concerned.  I'd think it'd be a tad more robust. 

I mean, the old IO Tech's Wavebooks running Waveview is even better than that!  (we're trying to replace them, but I'm not having much faith that these NI devices are a viable solution).

Thanks.

[Ryan-OC]

Hey I see that you opened a service request SR# 7377094. Daniel and I agreed that we will work together via email  to come up with viable options for you.Once we resolve your questions we will post the results to this forum. 

[BAES13]

Sorry for the double tap.  I was just trying to get something that worked, so we can either buy some more of these units or ditch it for something else.

[LexUtwente]

I have the same problem. Is there a solution?

[Spicy_Mystery]

Hi LexUtwente,

This thread is over 8 months old so I don't know if the people who started it will still be monitoring it.  Feel free to post a new thread with your issue.

[BAES13]

There was a solution.  I just wanted to use signal express and not labview.  I go with single samples and just X number of them.  The sample rate is the number of samples you want and the length of your recording.  I got it so that SE doesn't crash. 

It's all in the setup.  For the digital channels, you have to make sure the voltages are in the range for the inputs (TTL) and they they don't drag down the voltage of your UUT.  Those digital lines are input and output, so they only have like a 10k ohm impedance.