PCI-4474 migrated to new computer not working properly

[BelisarioNI]

Good day,

Recently in my lab we had to replace the computer that housed our NI PCI 4474 Acquisition card. New computers now lack the PCI slot that is required for this type of device, so we acquired a PCI-e to PCI adapter by Startech (https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pex1pci1).

After installation, NIMAX detects the card with no problem, however when we launched the Labview program we used to acquire data the signals were way smaller than usual. I used NI-MAX to check the device using the test panels. When I send to one of the channels a test signal (in this case, 5V RMS 617 Hz square signal), I get the results in Fig. 1 and Fig 2. The amplitude is too small, but the frequency is detected correctly, if I change the values of the frequency it adjusts accordingly.

When attempting to do a self-calibration, I get the following message:

Error -200718 occurred at an unidentified location

Possible reason(s):

Measurement taken during calibration produced an invalid AI gain calibration constant.
If performing an external calibration, ensure that the reference voltage value passed to the calibration VI or function is correct. Repeat the calibration. If the error persists, contact National Instruments Technical Support.

I checked the manual to do an external calibration (https://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/372005a.pdf) page 20. After setting up the VDC = 5V to all inputs,but I get the same error. I have the suspicion it may be related to the voltages handled by the PCIex slot, but I'm not entirely sure.

Can anyone provide any insight on how to solve this issue? Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks,

BelisarioNI

[santo_13]

This problem takes you to a whole new level, NI Instrument uses PCI bus level features a lot, since you're using a third party PCIe to PCI adapter, there could be a case that the PCIe adapter is not providing all the signals required for the PCI card and even the driver translating the PCI commands on the software later to PCIe transactions might be lacking.

These adapter might work fairly good for consumer products like audio cards, graphics cards, even NIC but not sure how well for instrumentation.

High chance that you may need to find a motherboard with inbuilt PCI (there are plenty in the market) or spend more time on figuring out where the problem is (given that you say that the card is working on a PCI based system).

Debugging this is highly likely to just use your time than providing a solution and you will not get any help from NI.

On another similar post, the experienced members of this forum unanimously agreed that using adapter cards may not work for NI instruments.