Software
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5.3.2 NI-DAQmx Drivers
Supplied with the DAQ card hardware is a set of NI-DAQmx device drivers, currently
at version 7.4. NI-DAQmx is the software required to communicate with and control
the NI acquisition device. The mx denotes the drivers are designed for M series
devices (such as the 6229) and are therefore required to operate them. NI-DAQmx
drivers can be used to control non-M Series devices however the Traditional NI-DAQ
(legacy) drivers cannot communicate with an M series device.
Driver software is essential for accessing the hardware capabilities and functions and
acts as the interface between the hardware and application software as shown in
Figure 5.5. As a result, compilation and execution of the mechatron control software
is limited to machines with NI-DAQmx installed.
Figure 5.5 Position of NI-DAQmx driver software
The main functions of the drivers include the following:
• Manage data input and output from the DAQ device
• Control the data acquisition rate
• Configure onboard hardware peripherals and pin-to-function associations
• Integrate DAQ hardware with PC resources (processor interrupts, DMA,
memory)
• Combine DAQ hardware with signal conditioning hardware
Supplied as part of the NI-DAQmx distribution are the various header files and
libraries required for program development in ANSI C, Visual C++, Visual C# and
Visual Basic .NET
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however native support for MATLAB is not available.
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.NET is a software development framework designed by Microsoft for the Windows operating
system
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