Drivers and S/W for PCI-6533

[Silvasy]

I have located a PCI-6533 card from within our company that I want to evaluate, but I don't have the drivers.  I would like to evaluate its performance in my Digital I/O application (16 bit TTL with an external clock (1.68MHz) and external trigger (to start and stop capture).  I will be writing the executable in Visual C++ and running on a W2K platform.  Ultimately, I would like to transition to the PCI-6535 in PCI-e form.  Does the PCI-6535 have the same general functionality as the 6533?  In other words, is it likely that if I write a successful capture routine for the 6533, I will be able to transition that routine to successfully capture on the 6535, or would a different card be more suitable for my application?

[ChrisNI · Accepted solution]

Hey Silvasy.  You'll want the NI-DAQmx driver to configure and operate your PCI-6533.  Here's a link to the latest verison:

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/1216/lang/en

Your clock rates should be well within the device capabilities.

The PCIe-6535 is highly compatible with the PCI-6533, and uses the same API and function calls as the PCI-6533, so I would expect your application to port to the 6535 with minimal changes required.

An area where the 6533 and 6535 differ is in cabling and connectivity.  If you're going to be spending time creating a fixture to connect to the DIO card (and you want to eventually be on the 6535), I'd check out the "653x cable adapter" (NI p/n 195846-01) - it translates between 6533 and 6535 connectivity.  My recommendation would be to get the adapter, plug it into the 6533, and use a VHDCI cable (e.g. NI p/n's 195949-01, 196275-01, or 192681-1R5) to connect up to your DUT or system.  Once you're ready to move to the 6535, you can get rid of the cable adapter and just use the VHDCI cable directly.

The cable and cable adapter don't have "model" pages on our web site, but you can see their info on this page:

http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/205628

Hope this helps!

Chris

[Silvasy]

Thanks Chris.  I've already broken out our existing cable into one of your terminal boards.  Once we're satisfied with the signal assignments, I'll change our source connector to provide the signals to the corresponding pins of the PCIe-6535.  Where can I obtain the pin assignments for the PCIe-6535?  I didn't see it in the Manual, Brochure or Detailed Spec on the website.

[Keith.Shapiro]

Hi Silvasy,

You can find the pinout in the help file for the 6535:  http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/371893d.zip

Once you've opened the .chm file contained in the download, navigate to NI 6535/6536/6537 in the Contents tab, and then select Front Panel and Connector Pinout.

Hope that helps,

Keith Shapiro

National Instruments R&D

[Silvasy]

Keith,

When I downloaded the file you suggested, I was unable to link to the document pages (error screen attached).  Do I need other software to be able to view it?

Thanks,

Tony Silvasy

[DJ_L.]

Hey Tony,

For the .chm file that is in the .zip file that Keith pointed you to, you actually have to download and save the file to your PC. If you try to just open it up directly from the link, it will not work. Try saving the file to your machine and then unzipping it and opening it that way. Let us know if this works or not. Thanks, and have a great day.

Regards, DJ L.

Message Edited by DJ L. on 04-01-2009 05:00 PM

[Silvasy]

I did in fact save it to my PC, unzip it and run it from the PC.  Not sure if it requires me to have administrative priviledges on the PC (I don't), but it never indicated I needed to, which it typically does.  Is there an alternate way of getting the pin assignment definition for the PCIe-6535?

[DJ_L.]

Hey Tony,

Do you have a co-worker that has admin privilages that can try that out for you? Or maybe try on another computer?

Here are some screenshots from the help file for the time being, but you should probably try to get the whole help file working on some machine.

Regards,

DJ L.