DASport PCI-20450P-24 Labview driver?

[Setu]

Can anyone help me please. I am a novice user of labview. I have to interface Intelligent Instrument's Dasport (model above) with labview. I know I need a labview supporting driver (or do I?). Does anyone have one? Or can anyone point me in the right direction how I should go about creating it? I need a starting point.

I am a third year software engineering student, and I am doing this as part of my internship. I am studying labview as I am posting this message. I will appreciate any help.

[Dennis_Knutson]

If the driver exists, you'll have to get it from Intelligent Instruments. If they don't have one, you'll have to write your won that accesses the Dasport .dll (if they use one). National only provides drivers for its own hardware.

[Aaron Marks]

Some manufacterers do create LabVIEW drivers for their hardware. LabVIEW is very popular for test and measurement applications and manufacturers can often increase their sales by integrating their hardware with LabVIEW. Look on the manufacturer's site to see if they do offer such support. They may not provide it for free, but it might be easier to buy it than to develop your own. Otherwise,the drivers for the board likely include dlls and header files which serve as the programming interface for C and other environments. Creating a LabVIEW driver is just a matter of creating VIs that call the dll functions using Call Library Nodes. You should be able to create your own VIs if you are not fortunate enough to find somebody who has already done so.

[Setu]

Thanks for responding Aaron. I have the required dll and C files to use with Labview's Code Interface Library. But I just don't know how to use it and put it all together. I have searched the NI website for possible help pages, but no luck. Do you know of any documentation that exists on Code Interface Library and how to use it? The end product VI's would look something like the existing VISA read, write, close VI's right?
Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Accessing a dll is easier than using the C interface node. For this you would use the Call Library Function on the Advanced palette. The manual called "Using External Code in LabVIEW" comes with LabVIEW and is also available for download at http://digital.ni.com/manuals.nsf/display?ReadForm&lookup=Measurement%20and%20Automation%20Software%3E%3ELabVIEW%3E%3EDevelopment%20Systems&view=web_productcurrent&node=132090_US. There are examples if you go to Help>Examples>Advanced>Calling Exteranl Code>Call Library Function (LabVIEW 5 path is slightly different). Another set of examples can be found at http://zone.ni.com/devzone/devzone.nsf/webcategories/E2A99E7E10D5725D862567AC004F0A53?opendocument&node=DZ52048_US. In my experience, the most importa
nt documentation has to come from the manufacturer of the hardware. All of the function calls and parameters need to have detailed explanations for you to have any hope of using them. The finished VIs could look like anything you want but if this is some sort of daq board, you might want to look at NI's VIs as a way to structure them. Good luck.

[Setu]

Thanks for the links dennis. Just as I have started on the VI another problem was thrown across me! From my little knowledge of labview, I have tried everything.

I have posted the problem at: http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RPAGEID=135&HOID=5065000000080000001C380000&UCATEGORY_0=_49_%24_6_&UCATEGORY_S=0

Hope you can help.
thanks,
setu.