Data Acquisition Idea Exchange

Basically, FlexLogger limits the range of readings to the values used in the 2 point calibration.  For example, if your sensor has a range of -10 to 10 PSI, and the 2-point cal is done at +/- 10 PSI, FlexLogger will only display values within +/- 10 PSI (and will saturate otherwise).

I totally understand why this is done, but sensors in fact DO read above (and sometimes below) their stated ranges and have documented accuracy (i.e. 1% above 95% full scale) , so clipping the value to the scaling settings in the cal page is the wrong thing to do...the sensor can still be measuring correctly, but FlexLogger will only show the saturated value.

The scaling, however it is done, probably result in a Y=mX + b equation, and FlexLogger should display Y, whatever Y is, regardless of stated sensor range or 2-point cal/scaling.

A worse case is if the sensor has a range of +/- 10 PSI but your cal/verification system is only capable of +/- 5 PSI, you will be limited to +/- 5 PSI with the FlexLogger 2-point cal implementation.

Yes, there are way around this, but why should the user, usually technicians who don't necessarily understand the math or ins/outs of software, have to figure out a way around FlexLogger?

For me it is very hard to spot channel that is connected on MAX schematic below:

By changing the color of connected channel it is way easier to spot:

Howdy!

I am trying to use a data acquisition system using python. There are thermocouple  modules and voltage modules that I would like to read from. It is set up and ran in 2013 LabVIEW and I am trying to put the test system into python for easy changing of the test and user control. 

I am wondering if the NI-DAQmx python library is kept up-to-date and if this is possible. I have been doing a lot of nitty gritty reading through the documentation on this library because there are not many examples of data collection using python to talk to the NI sensors. After trial and error attempts I have gone back to the basics to try and see if I can even change settings in the configuration of thermocouple channels. All I am trying to do is to take measurements from the thermocouple and I am changing the units from Fahrenheit to Celsius in separate runs. I can't even get this to work, even looking at example of this from Stackoverflow and the documentation where it specifically says how to configure the thermocouple channel (https://nidaqmx-python.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ai_channel.html and Ctrl-F to find thermocouples). 

Here is a snippet of the code I'm writing:

try:
    with ni.Task() as task:
        
        #Add the thermocouple channels to read from NI-9214's
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_thrmcpl_chan("cDAQ1Mod1/ai0:11", name_to_assign_to_channel='',
                                             min_val=0.0, max_val=100.0, units=ni.constants.TemperatureUnits.DEG_F, 
                                             thermocouple_type=ni.constants.ThermocoupleType.T)
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_thrmcpl_chan("cDAQ1Mod2/ai0:7", name_to_assign_to_channel='',
                                             min_val=0.0, max_val=100.0, units=ni.constants.TemperatureUnits.DEG_F,
                                             thermocouple_type=ni.constants.ThermocoupleType.T)
        
        #Set the thermocouple type to T
        #task.ai_thrmcpl_type = ThermocoupleType.T
        
        #Add the voltage channels to read from NI 9209
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_voltage_chan("cDAQ1Mod3/ai0:7")
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_voltage_chan("cDAQ1Mod3/ai9:12")
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_voltage_chan("cDAQ1Mod3/ai19:27")
        task.ai_channels.add_ai_voltage_chan("cDAQ1Mod3/ai29:31")
        
        #Set the rate of the Sample Clock and samples to aquire
        task.timing.cfg_samp_clk_timing(rate=Hz, sample_mode=AcquisitionType.CONTINUOUS)
        
        #Set the ADC Timing Mode to speed up the collection
        #task.ai_channels.ai_adc_timing_mode =  ADCTimingMode.HIGH_SPEED 
        task.ai_channels.ai_adc_timing_mode = ADCTimingMode.AUTOMATIC

This is a little frustrating to filter through the problems because there is not much out there that has the python use for help. If you search in the documentation search, the links of the results that you can click on are broken so that is another pitfall to this method.

Any help is greatly appreciated but I am curious if NI will keep the python library updated and running for future use.

NI-DAQmx python documentation: https://nidaqmx-python.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html 

Stackoverflow example help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47479913/python-nidaqmx-to-read-k-thermocouple-value

Thermocouple example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMMRbPvkzFs

As documented in a previous post, it is currently impossible to install the nidaqmx-python library into a Docker container. Enabling this functionality would create an opportunity for software teams to build cutting edge big data pipelines for measurement instruments using container technology. This could also optimize development time by including custom DAQ code in continuous integration pipelines.