Traditional NI-DAQ NI-DAQmx NI-488.2

[Tim8w]

We are a third-party user of the NI-DAQ 6503 card and NI-488.2 card. We are trying to put together a master PC that has both the Legacy drivers as well as the new .Net drivers.

Here's what I've attempted.

(1) Installed the Legacy drivers from the NI-DAQ 7.4.1 CD.

(2) Installed the .Net drivers from the NI-DAQmx 8.6 CD.

Up to this point, everything is fine. I can go into the Measurement & Automation Explorer and click under Devices & Interfaces and select either the NI-DAQmx Devices or Traditional NI-DAQ Legacy Devices and run the Test Panel fine from either.

(3) Installed the latest NI-488.2 driver from the NI-488.2 2.5 CD.

As soon as this is installed, the Test Panel for the NI-DAQmx no longer runs. It either crashes or complains about "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1" not being installed (which is was when the NI-488.2 installer ran) and goes into a continuous loop. I've kindof tracked down the problem as having something to do with the "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1". If I uninstall, the NI-488.2 2.5 installation, without removing the "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1", the problem remains. As soon as I uninstall the "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1", I can run the Test Panel again. The problem I have is that "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1" is apparently required to run the NI-488.2 card.

Any ideas on how to get this to work?

Thanks

Message Edited by Tim8w on 08-26-2008 04:48 PM

[Chris_G.]

Hello Tim8w,

Thank  you for posting on the NI Discussion Forums.  There are no known issues that cause problems when these particular drivers (and versions) interact on the same PC.  Having said that, it may be that you are the first person to come across an issue.  It may also be something as simple as a corrupt installation (e.g. a bad 488.2 disc), which would be a fluke, but is still a possibility.  I would like you to try out the following steps:

(1)    Install the LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 Run-Time Engine from ni.com.  From your post above, it doesn’t appear that you tried doing this yet, but I may be mistaken.  After this, check to see if the Test Panels are working correctly in MAX.

(2)    If the problem persists, uninstall both the LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine, as well as the NI-488.2 version 2.5 driver.  Verify that the Test Panels function in MAX once again.

(3)    Install the LabWindows/CVI 8.1.1 Run-Time Engine again.  Verify that the Test Panels function in MAX once again.

(4)    Install the NI 488.2 version 2.5 driver from ni.com, in the event that your installation disc was bad.  Check to see if the Test Panels are working in MAX.

(5)    If the problem continues to persist, please post here with the exact order of installations of NI Software that took place on your PC (up until you first encountered the issue), as well as the version numbers of the software.  Also, please post the operating system (and service pack if you know it) that is running on the machine.  We can try to replicate the problem on our end with this information to see if it is, in fact, an issue with driver interaction. 

Let us know how it goes!

[Tim8w]

Chris,

I have tried this as well.

(1) Installed the Legacy drivers from the NI-DAQ 7.4.1 CD.

(2) Installed the .Net drivers from the NI-DAQmx 8.6 CD.

As mentioned before, everything is fine up to here.

(3) Installed LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1.

As soon as this is installed, the Test Panel for the NI-DAQmx no longer runs. As I mentioned before, I could just not install "LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1", but it appears that it is required for the NI-488.2...

Tim

[Tim8w]

Chris,

Can't figure out to edit a message. Anyway, let me clarify these steps so you guys can verify the problem on your side...

(1) Installed the Legacy drivers from the NI-DAQ 7.4.1 installer downloaded from your website.

(2) Installed the .Net drivers from the NI-DAQmx 8.6 from the CD that came with the 6503 PCI Card. (Note: I have many copies of this CD, so unless they all are corrupt, I don't think the problem lies here...)

As mentioned before, everything is fine up to here.

if I do either of the following, I get the problem mentioned in the first post:

(3) Installed LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 8.1 downloaded from your website.

OR

(3) Installed the latest NI-488.2 driver from the NI-488.2 2.5 downloaded from your website.

As soon as either is installed, the Test Panel for the NI-DAQmx no longer runs.

As for the Operating System and Service Pack, this was installed on a Windows XP system with Service Pack 3 installed.

Thanks,

Tim

[Chris_G.]

Tim,

I will perform the above steps on a clean machine and update this forum with my findings.

[Chris_G.]

Tim8w,

I followed the same order of installation, and received the message seen in the attached file when trying to launch a test panel in MAX.  Even if I restarted the PC, the error remained every time I attempted to launch a test panel.  If I selected “No” in the popup message and selected “Cancel” on the message behind it, the prompt would go away, and the test panel would launch.  Annoying, yes, but the functionality was not completely lost.  This has been reported to R&D (#124754) for further investigation.

I was able to remove the problematic behavior by following the correct order of installation for NI Software, which involved me performing the following steps:

(1)    Removing all National Instruments software from the machine

(2)    Installing the following software in the order that they appear below:

(a)    LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine

(b)   Traditional NI DAQ driver software

(c)    NI DAQmx driver software

 You may be able to get away with just removing the drivers (Traditional DAQ and DAQmx) and the LabWIndows/CVI Run-Time Engine to save some time.

After doing this, launching test panels in MAX worked just fine.  Try this out and let us know how it goes!

[Tim8w]

Chris,

That worked for your software utility. When I try and run our software and set a bit on the 6503 Card, I get Error# -10613. This is on code that worked just fine using the Traditional NiDAQ calls from before. I added some debug code to my project and found that there were no errors returned from either the Init_DA_Brds call or DIG_Prt_Config call. It was only when I actually tried to set one of the bits using the DIG_Out_Port call where I got the error. Is there a difference in the 6503 Card you are shipping now and the ones you shipped 3-5 years ago? Again, we have not changed our software in this area for over 3 years...

Tim

[Chris_G.]

Tim8w,

If you take a look at the error description for error -10613, you will find that it says

The specified channel does not support the specified transfer direction, or you have performed an operation on a digital port or line configured for the opposite direction.

KnowledgeBase 3ES7A9BJ: Error 10613 When Configuring NI 6503 Card also details this as the cause.

Could it be that you are attempting to write an output to a line which is configured for input?  If so, then this would explain the error you are getting.

[Tim8w]

Chris,

I looked up the error myself also before posting. Like I mentioned before, this code has not changed for over 3 years. The IO direction is set to the correct direction and no error was returned upon setting the direction. ONLY when I try and actual set a bit do I get the error... It makes no sense whatsoever, unless, like I suggested above, that there is something different between the 6503 Cards you were shipping 3 years ago and the one that I received last month...

[Tim8w]

Chris,

Don't worry about this anymore. Turns out that our Hardware initialization routine was not too robust. I had only hooked up the NI devices and not the other 3rd party ones and when the 3rd party devices failed to initialize, it jumped out of the Hardware Initialization routine. So the NI hardware never got initialized. Thanks for all your effort.