New S Series feature—Tasks can now contain channels from multiple S Series devices.

[cpede]

Hi,

Can anyone explain and maybe give me an example of this new feature in DAQmx 8.1:

New S Series feature—Tasks can now contain channels from multiple S Series devices.

Can I put two S-series boards, lets say 2x4 AD ch, and let them work as one 8 ch. synchronized board?

Do I need a cable between?

-cpede

[reddog]

This feature is the same feature that was supported by DSA products in the DAQmx 7.4 release.  If you're unfamiliar with the feature, it simply means you can add channels from multiple S Series devices to a single task and the driver will automatically route the correct trigger and clock signals to synchronize them.  So yes, you can use this feature to treat two 4 channel boards as a single 8 channel board.  I should note that this feature only works for AI channels.  For AO, DIO, or counters you're still restricted to a single task per device.  For this to work on PCI devices, you still need to connect the devices via a RTSI cable and configure the RTSI cable in MAX.  For PXI devices, you need to identify your PXI chassis in MAX before routing will work properly.  If you would like to play around with this feature, any of the regular shipping examples can be used.  If you don't have hardware handy, you can always use simulated devices.  Hopefully this clarifies things.

[cpede]

Thanks for the reply,

So,
1) I place my two PCI-6143 boards into the same PC
2) Connect the internal RTSI cable between the two boards
3) Go into MAX and specify that the two devices is connected to the cable

How can I from the code (using C++) see that the two bards are connected using a RTSI cable?

Do I detect the device as one device in the code instead of two?

And in v8.1 is there a better way to detect that the device is a S-series board than parsing the name?

-cpede

[reddog]

1) I place my two PCI-6143 boards into the same PC
2) Connect the internal RTSI cable between the two boards
3) Go into MAX and specify that the two devices is connected to the cable

Yes, this is the correct procedure for PCI.

How can I from the code (using C++) see that the two bards are connected using a RTSI cable?

There is no programmatic way to determine which devices are connected via a RTSI cable at run time.  This is currently only possible at configuration time.

Do I detect the device as one device in the code instead of two?

The devices will still show up in your system as they did previously.  When adding channels to your task in your C++ code, you will now be able to specify "Dev1/ai0:7,Dev2/ai0:7" and the driver will automatically perform synchronization for you.  Previously, this would result in an error stating you can only have channels belonging to one device in a task.

And in v8.1 is there a better way to detect that the device is a S-series board than parsing the name?

I believe this was added in 8.0, but you can use the DAQmxGetDevProductCategory function and match on DAQmx_Val_SSeriesDAQ.