Installing LV7.0 on a PC with LV6.0 already installed

[labview1958]

I am using a PC with LV6.0 and a 6025E DAQ card installed in 2001. I want to use LV7.0 sometimes and LV6.0 other times. Would installing LV7.0 on the PC lead to problems when I want to RUN something in LV6.0? Would installing LV7.0 force me to reinstall the 6025E DAQ card? I am not an expert in computers so would everything end up in a mess?

[altenbach]

You can have as many LabVIEW version installed as you want. If you want to switch, simply open the desired version of LabVIEW from the start menu. (In windows explorer, VI will always open with the last used LabVIEW version).
Be aware that you cannot convert VIs from 7.0 back to 6.0. You would also need to install LabVIEW 6.1.


I am not so sure about the drivers. Do you want to use the DAQ in both LabVIEW version, or just in Version 6.0?

[labview1958]

What is a driver? Are LV7.0 drivers different from LV6.0? When I install LV7.0 do I also automatically install LV7.0 drivers? Do the new drivers overide or delete the earlier drivers?

[Philip_Courtois]

Hi labview1958,

A driver is simply the low-level code that communicates either directly to your hardware (i.e. NI-DAQ and DAQmx) or directly to other lower-level drivers (i.e. NI-VISA). All external hardware needs a driver for the computer to be able to work. You can think of a driver as a "dictionary" that is necessary for the computer to "talk" to the hardware, since they don't speak the same "language".

The type of driver you need for the NI 6025E DAQ board is called NI-DAQ. There are many different versions available for free download on our Drivers and Updates site. The latest driver that supports both LabVIEW 6i (6.0) and 7.0 is called NI-DAQ 7.1. Before installing the new driver, shut down your machine and take out the DAQ board. Then restart the machine. I would also recommend that uninstall the existing driver by going to the Windows "Start >> Control Panel >> Add or Remove Programs" and then choose to uninstall any version of NI-DAQ that already shows up there. It might be hiding under the "National Instruments Software" item. After this, you can install NI-DAQ 7.1. After installing NI-DAQ 7.1, shutdown the machine, insert the DAQ board and then restart the machine. Your machine should now find the new hardware (the DAQ board).

When installing NI-DAQ 7.1, it will by default install support for the versions of LabVIEW on your machine; therefore you should be able to use the DAQ VIs in both LabVIEW 6i and 7.0 after the install. In LabVIEW 7.0, you will see an additional palette called DAQmx. This is our new great version of DAQ VIs, but since they are not supported for any version of LabVIEW before 7.0, you will have to use the other DAQ VIs if you want consistency between your LabVIEW 6i and 6.0 code.

Please let me know if this was of any help, or if I just made you more confused, thanks.

Have fun!