PCI-6110E and NI-DAQmx for Mac OS X

[xyzzy]

what is the reason that PCI-6110E is not supported by NI-DAQmx for Mac OS X?

[WM_John_Weeks]

NI-DAQmx is not available for Mac OS X. You have to use NI-DAQmx Base.

According to the Read Me for NI-DAQmx Base for Macintosh version 1.5, the 6110 is supported.

[xyzzy]

Thanks, John.  The ReadMe file lists the 6110 S series board. What happened to the PCI-6110E series board? Is there a difference? I am using NI-DAQmx Base and the LabView examples do not seem to all work correctly. The system is G4 QuickSilver, 500 MB, 10.3.9.

Frank

...
NI S Series
  *Boards Supported
    -NI 6110
    -NI 6111
    -NI 6115
    -NI 6120
    -NI 6143
...

[WM_John_Weeks]

As far as I know (which is limited) the 6110E is an old name for the S-series board. But sometimes the older versions are slightly different and have slightly different requirements. Especially with DAQmx Base this can cause problems. We need someone more knowledgeable on this one, maybe.

>I am using NI-DAQmx Base and the LabView examples do not seem to all work correctly.

Especially with DAQmx Base, there are lots of little hardware-dependent gotchas that can make an example work OK with one device and have troubles with another.

I think you should post the particular problem you're having. I think you may have assumed the cause of the problem, and you might not be correct.

[Malcolm]

The change from 6110E to 6110 was merely a makreting name change to more acuratly represent the board.  While it does have an STC like the E Series, it is a lot different, starting with simultaneous sampling. 

Either way the board is fully supported and tested in NI-DAQmx Base for analog input only.  What specific issues are you seeing?  Other than AI-only, the only other limitation I am aware of is that it is not supported by the Task Configuration Utility.

[WM_John_Weeks]

Thanks, Malcolm, that's good to know.

>it is not supported by the Task Configuration Utility.

Hm. The M-series devices are not supported by mxbaseconfig, either. Since mxbaseconfig fills in (some of the) gaps left by not having access to properties, it is a really serious limitation in the "support" for a board.

When NI-DAQmx says a board is supported, it pretty much means that you can do anything that the hardware can handle.

When NI-DAQmx Base says a board is supported, it means that it doesn't outright refuse to work with the board, but it's a crap shoot exactly what aspects of the hardware are accessible.


I'm sorry to be so critical of NI-DAQmx Base. But it seems to me that NI had it coming to some extent. NI-DAQmx is an excellent system, well worth the re-write to use it. So when NI announces support for Mac OS X and Linux via NI-DAQmx Base, they start with certain expectations. True, NI tells us up front that it is "a subset of NI-DAQmx". But the subset is so limited that even with that warning disappointment is the usual response.

[MWS]

---

@Malcolm wrote:

Either way the board is fully supported and tested in NI-DAQmx Base for analog input only.  What specific issues are you seeing?  Other than AI-only, the only other limitation I am aware of is that it is not supported by the Task Configuration Utility.

---

I've been trying to see the possibility of using a 6110E board with a OS X machine and have little luck getting things to work. The lsdaq program finds the device, but beyond that I'm not finding much interaction with my 6110E board. If this board is not supported by the NI-DAQmx Base Task Configuration Utility, how do I set up tasks, even if it is only AI? Is there any documentation on this? It's been hard to find.

Thanks.

[WM_John_Weeks]

You can use Labview on OS X, or you can write C code to do it. In either case there are examples that ship with NI-DAQmx Base. Check the Examples folder that's installed in the NI-DAQmx Base folder, which is installed inside the National Instruments folder, which is installed in the Applications folder. >whew. lotta folders there<

[Malcolm]

There are two set of examples, dynamic and static.  The dynamic ones do not use the task config tool. 

LabVIEW - Applications/National Instruments/LabVIEW <version>/examples/daqmxbase/dynamic/ai

C - Applications/National Instruments/NI-DAQmx Base/examples/dynamic/ai

There's also a quick getting started manual for Mac and Linux, which has the basics of, as you might guess, getting started.

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/371729a.pdf