Open Source Driver Project

[Beutlich]

How feasible is the idea of setting up an open source driver project? This would be something that NI could host, but anyone could participate in to build a driver that can fit into different platforms. It can build on the DDK driver, but be centralized for collaborative effort. I like the name Open-DAQ driver. This would be a good way to address Linux users who are accustomed to source code. I know we have a DAQmx Base as a separate driver for different platforms, but an open source project would allow the Linux community to build a solution for novel or unusual Linux versions.

[G-Money]

Is this idea LabVIEW specific? I didn't know if the idea should be on the DAQ Idea Exchange or not. Did you receive feedback from a customer to made you think of this idea?

[Beutlich]

Your right, it should be more of a DAQ idea than a LabVIEW idea. Is there a way to retroactively change it?

I have seen some customers requesting help to get their device on some random version of Linux, and sometimes request source code. Don't know if it is feasible, but thought I'd throw the idea out there.

[G-Money]

I can move this idea over to the DAQ Idea Exchange for you. I would also chat with the DAQ PMEs and PSEs about this idea to get their opinion as well.

[John_P1]

There actually is something like what you describe that already exists, but it is not hosted or supported by NI:

http://www.comedi.org/

I'm hardly the most knowledgeable person about the Comedi driver, but according to their website they have support for a good amount of NI hardware.  X Series is currently absent (as of 11/1/2011) but the DDK was just released earlier this year so perhaps we will see X Series support in the future.

[willemf]

I would strongly support the development of software closer to DAQmx in Linux, rather than only Base. Also the inclusion of Debian/Ubuntu in the list of officially supported variants would greatly enhance the utilisation of NIDAQ hardware and software, since this Linux variant is a major (if not dominant) player in the opensource area.

[lazzarello]

This is a crucial feature for modern data pipelines. This would enable the possibility for DAQ software to run in a Linux container, which could fit into a modern realtime timeseries database architecture.

For example, a project could be composed of gRPC and Protocol Buffers defining what data looks like on the endpoints, and the DAQ driver could be on one endpoint and a timeseries database on the other.