Data Acquisition Toolbox™

National Instruments Hardware

NI-DAQmx Versus Traditional NI-DAQ Drivers

National Instruments provides two drivers for accessing their hardware. Data Acquisition Toolbox software supports both:

• Traditional NI-DAQ

• NI-DAQmx

Note   The Traditional NI-DAQ adaptor will be deprecated in a future version of the toolbox. If you create a Data Acquisition Toolbox™ object for Traditional NI-DAQ adaptor beginning in R2008b, you will receive a warning stating that this adaptor will be removed in a future release. See the supported hardware page at www.mathworks.com/products/daq/supportedio.html for more information.

Some older National Instruments devices require the Traditional NI-DAQ driver. Many of the newest National Instruments devices, such as the M-series, require the NI-DAQmx driver. However, many of the more popular National Instruments devices, such as E-series and S-series, can be used with either driver. To find out which driver your hardware requires, see the NI-DAQmx release notes at the National Instruments Web site, http://www.ni.com.

If your hardware can use either driver, you should choose the NI-DAQmx interface. If you have a mix of hardware that cannot all use the same driver, you can install both drivers to access your hardware. Any device that supports both drivers will appear twice in the results of daqhwinfo('nidaq'); you should access these devices from the Traditional NI-DAQ interface.

daqhwinfo('nidaq')
           AdaptorDllName: [1x63 char]
        AdaptorDllVersion: '2.10 (R2007a)'
              AdaptorName: 'nidaq'
               BoardNames: {'PCI-4472' 'PCI-4472'}
        InstalledBoardIds: {'Dev4' '1'}
    ObjectConstructorName: {2x3 cell}

Notice that the 'PCI-4472' board appears in the list twice. This device is available through both the new NI-DAQmx interface and the Traditional NI-DAQ interface.

Devices accessed by NI-DAQmx use a string device ID such as 'Dev1' to identify the board. Traditional NI-DAQ devices use a numeric device ID. For example:

ai_mx = analoginput('nidaq','Dev4')
ai_trad = analoginput('nidaq','1')

Back to Top

What Driver Are You Using?

The Data Acquisition Toolbox software is compatible only with specific versions of the NI-DAQ driver and is not guaranteed to work with any other versions. For a list of the NI-DAQ driver versions that are compatible with the Data Acquisition Toolbox software, refer to the product page on the MathWorks Web site at http://www.mathworks.com/products/daq/.

If you think your driver is incompatible with the Data Acquisition Toolbox software, then you should verify that your hardware is functioning properly before updating drivers. If your hardware is functioning properly, then you are probably using unsupported drivers. Visit the National Instruments Web site at http://www.ni.com/ for the latest NI-DAQ drivers.

You can find out which version of NI-DAQ you are using with National Instruments' Measurement & Automation Explorer. You should be able to access this program through the Windows Desktop. The driver version is available through the Help menu.

Select Help > System Information to open the Measurement & Automation Explorer.

Back to Top

Is Your Hardware Functioning Properly?

To troubleshoot your National Instruments hardware, you should use the Test Panel. The Test Panel allows you to test each subsystem supported by your board, and is installed as part of the NI-DAQ driver software. You can access the Test Panel by right-clicking the appropriate device in the Measurement & Automation Explorer and choosing Test Panel.

For example, suppose you want to verify that the analog input subsystem on your PCI-6024E board is operating correctly. To do this, you should connect a known signal — such as that produced by a function generator — to one or more channels, using a screw terminal panel.

If the Test Panel does not provide you with the expected results for the subsystem under test, and you are sure that your test setup is configured correctly, then the problem is probably with the hardware.

To get support for your National Instruments hardware, visit their Web site at http://www.ni.com/.

Back to Top

Measurement Computing Hardware

Sound Cards