Troubleshooting

Installation and Configuration

Refer to the DAQ Getting Started Guide for general installation and configuration instructions.

Use the following resources if you have problems installing your DAQ hardware and/or software:

  • Refer to NI DAQ Setup and Support on ni.com for information on getting started with NI DAQ, support, drivers and code, and other resources.
  • Refer to ni.com/kb for documents on troubleshooting common installation and programming problems and for answering frequently asked questions about NI products.
  • If you think you have damaged your device and need to return your NI hardware for repair or calibration, refer to sending a NI board in for repair or calibration.

For LabWindows/CVI users, if the Data Acquisition function panel is disabled, you may need to uninstall NI-DAQmx and reinstall it, making sure that you add support for LabWindows/CVI. If you have installed LabWindows/CVI support and Data Acquisition is still dimmed, select Library»Customize. In the Customize Library Menu dialog box, check Data Acquisition, and restart LabWindows/CVI. You might also need to verify that the dataacq.lib is in the bin directory.

Programming

To help you get started programming, you can use the shipping examples for your ADE.

You can also visit NI's extensive library of technical support resources at ni.com/support.

You can interactively configure global virtual channels and tasks with the DAQ Assistant. For NI application software such as LabVIEW, you can use the DAQ Assistant to generate code.

You can use NI I/O Trace to analyze the functions you have called in the API with NI application software. With NI I/O Trace, you can watch the order of execution of the application and locate errors as they happen.

Note   I/O Trace is not supported by the NI-DAQmx .NET API.

Finally, the NI-DAQmx Help contains programming flowcharts for common applications such as measuring temperature, current, strain, position, and acceleration.

External Connections

In addition to the information on making signal connections in this help file, the Connection Diagram tab in the DAQ Assistant within MAX shows you how to connect signals.

Calibration

  • For information on externally calibrating your device, including step-by-step calibration procedures, refer to ni.com/calibration.
  • For an overview of calibration, including the difference between self-calibration and external calibration, refer to Device Calibration.
  • For device-specific information required for calibration with NI-DAQmx, refer to Device-Specific Calibration.
  • For information on channel calibration, refer to What Is Channel Calibration?

CPU Usage

NI-DAQmx tasks use 100% of the CPU if no other processes are running. However, as soon as another process requires the CPU, the NI-DAQmx task yields to that process.