National Instruments DAQmx Generic

The National Instruments DAQmx Generic device driver is a AD Converter which is supported by RadiMation^®.

Configuring the device

The values configured in the advanced settings for the National Instruments DAQmx Generic driver, as seen below, stand for an estimate of the expected measurement values on each channel. The controlled device uses these values to determine the best internal scaling and gain configurations in the hardware for the selected input channels.

Note: This means that the actual measured values returned from the device do not necessarily have to be within this specified range. The actual measured values will eventually be determined by the internal hardware of the controlled device. This can be different for each device depending on the installed module.

Setting up DAQmx simulator

It is possible to test the NI-DAQmx software in simulated mode. NI has documentation on how to install and configure a simulated device: https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA03q000000x0PxCAI&l=nl-NL

First download and install the NI-DAQmx setup which can be found here: https://www.ni.com/nl-nl/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-daqmx.html#348669

1. Start NI MAX
2. Locate "My System" > "Devices and interfaces".
3. Right click on "Devices and Interfaces"
4. Choose "Create new..."
5. Choose "Simulated NI-DAQmx Device or Modular Instrument".
6. Click "Finish"
7. Now search for the device to test, for example the "USB-6212"
8. And click "Ok"

Now the simulated device is added, if it's the first device, it most probably is called: USB NI-6212 "Dev1".

The next steps are done within RadiMation:

1. Open RadiMation
2. Open the menu "Devices" > "Configure".
3. At "Device Driver Type" choose "AD Converters"
4. Click "Add"
5. Search for: National Instruments DAQmx Generic
6. Select the type from the list and click "New"
7. In the "Device Driver Settings" screen click "Advanced"
8. Make sure that under "Communication" the "Device Name" matches with the name created in NI-MAX.
9. Open the tab "Settings" make sure that the "Signal Input Min" and "Signal Input Max" are -10 and 10. for all channels (both tabs).

Now it should be possible to use the AD converter in a test-site in a RadiMation^® test, where the measurement values that are shown in the test are generated by the simulated device from the NI-DAQmx software.