cable pinout & daqmx

[Kyle_A.]

I think I understand your issue now.  On the 33/34, PFI 4 was Group 0 Peripheral Sample Clock that you could use for acquisition on Group 0 lines.  On the 35, PFI 4 is set for generation Sample Clock only.  This is definitely a problem, so there is only one way I can see working around this.

Assuming your system is being transferred from a 33/34, it used the SCSI connector vs the VHDCI connector on the 6535.  We created an accessory that allows you to convert VHDCI to SCSI to keep compatibility with your system.  You can find the accessory here.

If you use a D4 cable with the 653x accessory, and on your DUT the card has a SCSI connector, you can get it to work.  Then, on the inside of the 653x accessory is access to all of the PFI lines on both 33/34 and 35/36/37 devices.  So you have the option to manually route signals from one card to the DUT based on the previous PFI lines you were using with the 33/34.  

For example, you can take PFI 5 (acquisiton Sample Clock on 6535) and manually wire that to PFI 4 on the 33/34 side.  

This is probably your best shot at getting the system to work.  Reading using PFI 4 will not work, PFI 3 is not a clock line on the 6535.  Can you check the accessory and tell me if you can make that work? Thank you.

[Danizz]

Hi Kyle,

I am not sure if you overlooked my most recent message, please if so I would appreciate your comments about it. Regarding the first part of your message, it is true the npoint C300 was connected to PCI 6533 using some kind of auxiliary 653X adapter. Both NI card and Npoint controller have SCSI-II interface. Anyway, I do not really understand how the accessory should fit my present case: from the documentation about my DUT (npoint controller, C400 type) the interface available is a 68-pin VHDCI connector  ---see C.400 High Speed Parallel Interface Specification 1.0.pdf, pag 6 --. Also the card to be used, PXIe 6535, has a 68-pin VHDCI connector and according to Npoint specification a 1:1 cable such SHC68-C68-D4 can directly route signals to any C400 npoint controller. Is that still possible? Did they (Npoint) forget something? The problem is actually that the existing code (see original zip file) is implemented using legacy DAQ and Npoint does not provide any documentation or example. They only claim that since things worked before, now using daqmx should be straightforward to implement a working program. Since it worked with different connection/PFI schemes it seems not easy to extend the code using daqmx. Any help to understand if I can get things working  would be highly appreciated.

Regards,

Daniele

[Kyle_A.]

Hi Daniele,

I have looked over all of your messages, however I am not able to make suggestions on how to code your system to work with a 3rd party system.  What I can do is describe the functionality of our board in hopes that it will lead you to a successful implementation of your application with the PXIe-6535.

If the npoint controller has both SCSI and VHDCI, and you need it to work, one option is to use the SCSI with the manual PFI routing to have the hardware interact in the way you want it to. This is assuming the Npoint controller was created for use with a 33/34 and not a 35.

As far as legacy DAQ (I call this TDAQ) and DAQmx, the software should be compatible with each and it should work the same.  You should be able to set up DAQmx handshaking and the default lines that it uses should still be the same.

To be perfectly clear, TDAQ and DAQmx do NOT have different PFI schemes.  The 6533/34 and the 6535 DOES have different PFI schemes.  If the 6535 working with TDAQ is successfully used with the npoint controller, then the 6535 with DAQmx will also be successful.  There are no PFI differences in the software, only the hardware.

The D4 cable is 1:1, if the npoint controller was designed for a cable like that, then you can use that cable with our products.

If you have any questions related to NI products, hardware or software, I am more than happy to help you with those questions. Please be as clear as possible with what question you would like to know about our hardware/software.

[instig8er]

Hi Kyle,

             Just making absolutely sure about this, when you say the D4 cable is 1:1 does that mean when you connect two connectors (conA and conB, say) either end of the cable that it will translate Pin1 conA to Pin1 conB, I am doing PCB footprints for a ST and RA connector and I want to make sure this is correct or I will have a major problem. NB. The cable I am using is the SHC68-C68-D4.

Thx Mark....  

[Kyle_A.]

Hi Mark,

I checked the schematic of the cable, and I can confirm that pin 1 on one side of the cable is connected to pin 1 on the other side. Pin 2 to pin 2, 3 to 3,...,all the way to pin 68 connected to pin 68. Here is a helpful article that describes interfacing to a custom PCB with our connectors:

Interfacing to the NI Digital Waveform Generator/Analyzer using the VHDCI Connector

And here is another helpful KB that shows dimensional drawings of all of our HSDIO connectors:

Where Can I Find the Dimensional Drawings of HSDIO Connectors?

Hope this helps!