NI mioDAQ Physical Channels

In physical channel names, Dev1 is the default device name for mioDAQ devices. You can change these names in MAX.

Analog Input

Depending on your mioDAQ device, you can have from 16 to 32 analog input channels. A 16-channel mioDAQ device has physical channels ranging from Dev1/ai0 to Dev1/ai15, a 32-channel device from Dev1/ai0 to Dev1/ai31.

Use only the physical channel name of the positive channel (not both) when creating a differential channel.

Analog Output

A mioDAQ device that supports two analog outputs has analog output physical channels named Dev1/ao0 and Dev1/ao1.

A mioDAQ device that supports four analog outputs has analog output physical channels named Dev1/ao0, Dev1/ao1, Dev1/ao2, and Dev1/ao3.

Digital Input and Output

All mioDAQ devices have 16 lines of digital input and output named Dev1/port0/line0 through Dev1/port0/line15. These lines belong to a single port, and the physical channel Dev1/port0 refers to all 16 lines at once. Port 0 can perform both hardware-timed and static digital operations.

The mioDAQ device digital lines can also be used as pins for Counter/Timer operations and Trigger routing. Such pins are sometimes referred to as Programmable Function Interface (PFI) pins. On the mioDAQ devices, the same physical pins can be used as either digital I/O or PFI. The channel name mapping of PFI pins to digital I/O physical channels is shown in the following table.

PFI Signal Physical Channel Name
PFI 0:15 Dev1/port0/line0:15

Counter Input and Output

All mioDAQ devices have four counter/timers referred to by the physical channel names Dev1/ctr0, Dev1/ctr1, Dev1/ctr2, and Dev1/ctr3. Unlike the other I/O types, these physical channel names do not refer to terminals on the I/O connector but instead to circuits within the device. There are five primary signals associated with each counter: SOURCE, GATE, AUX, OUT, and sample clock. NI-DAQmx has default terminals for these signals, except for the sample clock.

For counter input tasks, if you know whether your signal provides the SOURCE, AUX, or GATE function and wire your signal to the default, you do not have to set the Input Terminal attribute/property.

Counter SOURCE Default GATE Default AUX Default OUT Default
Dev1/ctr0 PFI 0 PFI 8 PFI 4 PFI 0
Dev1/ctr1 PFI 1 PFI 9 PFI 5 PFI 1
Dev1/ctr2 PFI 2 PFI 10 PFI 6 PFI 2
Dev1/ctr3 PFI 3 PFI 11 PFI 7 PFI 3