Version 2.6 (R14SP2) Data Acquisition Toolbox™ Software Release Notes

Version 2.6 (R14SP2) Data Acquisition Toolbox Software

This table summarizes what's new in Version 2.6 (R14SP2):

New features and changes introduced in this version are:

• New Functions: islogging, isrunning, and issending

• Using PFI or RTSI Channels for Triggers and Clocks

• peekdata Allows Type Parameter

• Property Inspector Replaces daqpropedit

• waittilstop Function Renamed wait

• Upgrading from an Earlier Release

New Functions: islogging, isrunning, and issending

Three new functions are provided to query the status of data acquisition device objects.

For further details on each function, see its reference page in the documentation. Use of these functions is recommended over directly accessing the Running, Logging, and Sending properties.

Using PFI or RTSI Channels for Triggers and Clocks

Three new properties for National Instruments cards are:

• HwDigitalTriggerSource

• ExternalSampleClockSource

• ExternalScanClockSource

These properties allow you to select a PFI or RTSI channel as the source for a hardware digital trigger, external sample clock, or external scan clock. See the reference pages for these properties to read about valid property settings and when they are in effect.

peekdata Allows Type Parameter

The peekdata function now accepts a third parameter specifying data format. When the data format is specified as native, data is returned in the native format of the data acquisition device, similar to the behavior of the getdata function. For detailed information on peekdata, type

help analoginput/peekdata

Property Inspector Replaces daqpropedit

The Property Inspector replaces the Data Acquisition Toolbox Property Editor (daqpropedit) graphical user interface.

You open the Property Inspector for object obj with the inspect function.

inspect(obj)

For more information about the inspect function, type

help daqdevice/inspect

Typing daqpropedit at the command line now opens the Property Inspector.

waittilstop Function Renamed wait

The waittilstop function has been renamed wait. All functionality remains the same. waittilstop still works in Version 2.6, but may be removed from a future version of the toolbox. For more information on wait, type

help daqdevice/wait

Upgrading from an Earlier Release

This section describes the issues involved in upgrading from Data Acquisition Toolbox version 2.5.1 (Release 14SP1), 2.5 (Release 14), or 2.2 (Release 13SP1).

Obsolete Action Properties

All object properties with Action in their name are obsolete in Version 2.6. These have been replaced by properties with the same name using Fcn instead of Action. These Fcn properties have existed in several recent versions of the Data Acquisition Toolbox software. The toolbox supported the Action properties during these transition releases, but they are no longer supported. If your code still uses these obsolete property names, you must update it to use the new property names.

Deleting a Running Object

In past releases, you could not delete a running object. Now in Version 2.6, when you attempt to delete a running object, the toolbox stops the object, issues a warning, then deletes the object.

ai.SamplesPerTrigger = Inf
start(ai);
delete(ai)
Warning: Object stopped before deleting.

Return Format of daqfind

In past versions, the daqfind function returned a 1-by-1 cell array of N-by-1 objects. Now in Version 2.6, this function returns an N-by-1 cell array of objects.

ai1 = analoginput('winsound');
ai2 = analoginput('winsound');
objs = daqfind('Type','Analog Input')
objs = 
    [1x1 analoginput]
    [1x1 analoginput]

peekdata and getdata Number of Samples

The functions peekdata and getdata no longer accept Inf as an argument for specifying the number of samples. In the past, specifying Inf for the number of samples was accepted, and returned zero samples. Now specifying Inf samples causes an error.

data = getdata(ai, Inf)
??? The number of samples requested must be less than Inf.

waittilstop Function Renamed wait

The waittilstop function has been renamed wait. All functionality remains the same. waittilstop still works in Version 2.6, but may be removed from a future version of the toolbox. For more information on wait, type

help daqdevice/wait

daqpropedit Replaced by inspect

The Data Acquisition Toolbox Property Editor (daqpropedit) graphical user interface has been replaced by the Property Inspector.

You open the Property Inspector for object obj with the inspect function.

inspect(obj)

For more information about the inspect function, type

help daqdevice/inspect

Typing daqpropedit at the command line now opens the Property Inspector.

Version 2.7 (R14SP3) Data Acquisition Toolbox Software

Version 2.5.1 (R14SP1) Data Acquisition Toolbox Software