SCXI-1600 vs NI-6251 Mass Term (SCXI-1000 chassis)

[CoryM]

I just need a sanity check on using a SCXI-1600 instead of a NI-6251.

I've got an SCXI-1000 chassis with 3 cards: SCXI-1100 (w/1300), SCXI-1104 (w/1300), and SCXI-1126 (w/1327)

I'm sampling 62 channels from these cards at 1200 samples per second, using LabVIEW 2011 on Win 7 (32-bit).

We previously had a PCI-6040E to connect to the chassis, but we need to move to a USB interface.  I tried the 6251, but we're having serious space and mounting issues since this a portable setup.  I'd like to use an SCXI-1600 instead, but I'm afraid of all the dire warnings recommending a 6251 instead.  Are there any issues I'm going to run into?  This seems like such a basic setup.

The 1600 saves me the space from the 6251, its power supply, and the 68-pin cable connecting the two.

[Carisa_L · Accepted solution]

Hi CoryM,

Since you are using Win 7 (32-bit) I do not forsee any compatibility issues. We highly encourage our customers to use the 6251 because it is a newer product with more capabilities, but if you need the SCXI-1600 that should be fine  as well. Hope this helps!

-Carisa L.

[CoryM]

Thanks!  The 1600 is working for us and simplified a lot of things.

[Carisa_L]

Hi CoryM,

I'm glad the 1600 is working out well for you! Thanks for following up!

-Carisa L.

[LVUser94]

One important caveat when considering SCXI-1600.

It is only USB 2.0 Full-Speed (15 MBits/s) and not the Hi-Speed USB (480MBits/s) that most people expect.

If you use the SCXI-1600 with any significant # of channels and > 10 Samples/s scan rate you will eventually get a device FIFO overflow error -200010.

This indicates that USB transfer to the PC could not keep up with the data acquisition, causing the FIFO on the device to overflow.

There are Hi-Speed USB DAQ devices (such as USB-6255 M-series or newer X-series devices) which will be better than SCXI-1600.