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New DAQ Diagnostic Utility Available

We have recently released the new DAQ Diagnostic Utility.
 
The utility tests the counter, analog input, analog output, and digital I/O systems of supported multifunction DAQ devices to ensure that they function within tolerance.
 
You can download it here:  DAQ Diagnostic Utility
 
 
 
Salvador Santolucito
Multifunction DAQ Product Support Engineer
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How can I get the details on what each tests does and how it configures the DAQ UUT before it performs those tests. What is the difference between this executable utility, the Online E Series Diagnostic Utility: Self Test, and the E Series Self Diagnostic.VI provided for legacy MIO boards? I have used all three to test my PCI-MIO-16E-1 card and they all pass with the exception of the Online Utility where it fails the Calibration procedure. I tried sending the results back to NI, but each time, it fails to contact NI. Can the source code for the executable be available for study? Thanks in advance for any info.
 
-Don
 
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Hi Don,

The ReadMe file contains information on what each test does.  The tests in the new utility are very similiar to the ones performed in the old Online E Series Diagnostic.  I'm not sure why your board fails the self tes however.  If it passes the self test in the new utility, then you should be fine.  Unfortunately, we cannot release any of the utility's source code.

-Sal

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IT's too bad, it doesn't support all of their devices. Below is the no-support list.

Unsupported Devices

  • NI AO Waveform
  • NI Counter/Timer
  • NI DAQCard-6715
  • NI DAQCard-DIO-24
  • NI High Speed Digitizers (4xxx)
  • NI PCI-DIO-32HS
  • NI PCI-DIO-96
  • NI S Series (61xx)
  • NI SCC
  • NI SCXI
  • NI Static and High Speed Digital (65xx)
  • NI Switch devices (2xxx)
  • NI USB-600x
  • NI USB-6501
  • NI USB-9xxx
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What are the other options to perform diagnostics or self test for NI S Series (61xx) ?
 
Thanks
Abdulla
 
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Hello Abdulla,

Unlike for E and M Series DAQ devices, there is no packaged utility like the DAQ Diagnostic Utility available for S Series DAQ cards.  You can still use all the same self-test, test panel, and self-calibration utilities from within Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX).   These are the best tools for verifying the functionality of your S Series DAQ card.  Programmatically, you can easily develop your own or expand on existing example programs using the NI-DAQmx functions.  Using these functions, you can develop your own diagnostic utility to automate the testing of your S Series card.

The main reason the existing DAQ Diagnostic Utility is not supported by S Series DAQ cards is because of their simultaneous sampling capabilities.  These capabilities require much more complicated internal circuitry to include a dedicated analog to digital converter (ADC) for each analog input channel.  This circuitry makes it impossible to internally wire voltages within the card to fully automate a test procedure.  Instead, you will need to provide a known external voltage (from a power supply or AA battery) to each analog input channel to test its functionality.  You could also externally wire analog output lines to analog input lines to perform a test on both channels.  The testing of analog output, digital I/O, and counter tasks should be the same for all types of cards.

In conclusion, there is no automated diagnostic utility for S Series DAQ cards, but it is feasible to develop your own testing routine in LabVIEW.  As always, make sure that you have the latest version of the NI-DAQmx driver installed.  Use the example programs that ship with LabVIEW as templates for performing the required DAQ tasks.  Finally, if you wish, you can follow the descriptions of the tests performed in the DAQ Diagnostic Utility Readme for an idea of how to fully test the functionality of your card.  I hope this helps.

Travis Gorkin
Applications Engineering
National Instruments
www.ni.com/support

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Hi Salvador,

what about including a test routine in your DAQ Test utility that measures the maximum relieable analog output sample rate on a given system. We spent a lot of time finding errors in an application that turned out to work correct afterwards, because we did not see that our computer mainboard had a bottleneck in the PCI System.

flipp
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Hi Salvador,
We have a problem with NI DAQ 6508 USB, DAQ Pad, NiDaq card doesn't rule at all its outputs and inputs - we used it a lot of time without any problems and this problem appears suddenly.Please advice us what diag tool we can use in order to detect the problem source?
 
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Hi Geri,

Let me first point out that there is no comparable diagnostic utility for the DAQPad-6508.  The best option for troubleshooting is to use test panels in MAX or example programs to test the functionality of your device.  That being said, I couldn't really understand from your post what problem you are seeing with the 6508.  If you want further assistance in troubleshooting the problem, please start a new thread on this issue since it doesn't really apply to the current thread.  You should include the following information:

1.  Which digital lines are giving you trouble? 
2.  Is it the input or output that is not working?  In either case, what behavior are you seeing?  (Always reads 1 or 0, always writes 1 or 0, etc.)
3.  When have you seen this troublesome behavior?  Are you running an application written in LabVIEW or some other programming language?  Are you using MAX test panels?
4.  Are you getting any specific error messages?  If so, please give the error code and complete description.
5.  What are you connecting to these digital lines?

This information will be very helpful in trying to pinpoint the source of the problem. 

Best regards,
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Are there any plans to add the new USB-6251 to the diagnostics?

If you update the next diagnostics, would it be possible to reset the unit being tested.  Currently, all I/O is left in a state other than what it is on power up.

 

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