Making a measurement VI for a PCI-6034E unit without the hardware

[Nanopit]

We're making a measurement VI for a partner of ours who uses a PCI-6034E DAQ unit, but we don't have the hardware (the PCI-6034E) ourselves to test out our VI.  I have never used the NI-DAQmx VIs before, although I have considerable experience with Labview-controlled Agilent DAQ units.  I'm borrowing the back-end code from the VIs we created to work with the Agilent DAQs for the 6034E data processing and saving, so all I really need is simple guide to interface and get data from the 6034E.  The next problem comes in that I need to have this written by tomorrow and I'm having difficulty finding a good resource on this topic that doesn't start talking about the Measurement and Automation software which, from what I understand, requires the hardware to be present. 

We'll be very thankful if anyone has any suggestions for guides or VI modules from the NI website which could help us make a solid VI for the PCI-6034E without the hardware during development.

Thank you in advance.

[S_Hong]

Hi Nanopit,

The good news is that with our Measurement and Automation Explorer software (MAX), you can simulate devices on your computer to be used in LabVIEW. However, note that although this can help you develop your application, LabVIEW may not be able to catch all potential problems in your code. It will catch most, but not all.

To simulate your device in MAX, you can expand My System » Devices and Interfaces and right click on NI-DAQmx Device » NI-DAQmx Simulated Device. The Choose Device window prompts you to select a device and since you have an E Series device, you will find the PCI-6034E under E Series DAQ.

Also, I would like to point out that there are tons of great DAQmx shipping examples in LabVIEW that you could refer to. You can view these in your Example Finder by accessing it under Help » Find Examples. Most of the DAQ examples will be under Hardware Input and Output » DAQmx. Furthermore, I would like to mention that you can also narrow down your search by hardware. To do this, simply add a device in the Hardware drop down menu in the bottom left corner of you NI Example Finder. You can then select your hardware and check "Limit results to hardware."

Here are also a couple of links which might help you get started with your application.

NI-DAQmx Simulated Devices

Learn 10 Functions in NI-DAQmx and Handle 80 Percent of Your Data Acquisition Applications

I hope this helps.

[Nanopit]

Thank you, S_Hong!

The directions for setting up a simulated device in MAX worked very nicely and allowed me to debug the software that I wrote (amazingly there were no errors in the NI-DAQmx portion).  Yesterday, I found the "10 functions" link you listed and that combined with actually finding someone who had used NI-DAQmx previously to show me that I should stop looking for an "initialization" VI 😉 allowed me to create the basic NI-DAQ VI that I needed.

The true proof test of the software will be when it is used with the actual hardware (on the other side of the world from me), but I feel much better about its bug resistance now that I've gotten the chance to test it out.

The polymorphic nature of the NI-DAQmx VIs is very nice and adaptable!  Excellent program.  🙂

Thank you for your help, and have a great day.