Can I use the National Instrument PCI 6521 with the Data Acquisition Toolbox 2.12 (R2008a)?

I have an NI PCI-6521 which is not listed on the supported hardware page. Is there a way to use this device?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This enhancement has been incorporated in Release 2009a (R2009a). For previous product releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

The PCI-6521 and PXI-6521 are not supported by the Data Acquisition Toolbox.

To work around this issue, you can add support for these devices by modifying the device configuration file.

To add support for Digital Input/Output subsystems using NI-DAQmx drivers, perform these steps:

1. Quit MATLAB.

2. Find the following file:

$MATLABROOT\toolbox\daq\daq\private\mwnidaqmx.ini

(where $MATLABROOT is the MATLAB root installation directory obtained by issuing:

matlabroot

at the MATLAB Command Prompt.)

3. Make a copy of this file and rename it to mwnidaqmx.ini.old.

4. Open the file mwnidaqmx.ini in a text editor, and add the following lines at the end of the file:

 [PCI-6521]

 hasAnalogInput   = false

 hasAnalogOutput  = false

 hasDigitalIO     = true

 digitalPortSize  = 8,8

 digitalPortCap   = 1,2

 [PXI-6521]

 hasAnalogInput   = false

 hasAnalogOutput  = false

 hasDigitalIO     = true

 digitalPortSize  = 8,8

 digitalPortCap   = 1,2

5. Save the file mwnidaqmx.ini and restart MATLAB.