Hardware compatibility

[wes]

I was wondering what devices DaqFactory can work with out-of-the-box? I have been using DFE with Labjacks and would like to be able to stream analog inputs while reading/streaming lots of thermocouples. I have seen on some website that DF supports Measurement Computing hardware and they make an 8 tc block, the USB-TC.

1) Can DF access the USB-TC?

2) If so can it do this while streaming from a Labjack?

3) Can DF stream from other general purpose Measurement Computing USB hardware (AI, AO, etc)

4) Can DF stream from NI USB hardware?

5) Can you give me an idea of the complexity of the sequence to implement the above? (if possible)

Thanks,

Wes

[AzeoTech]

The general answer is that you should avoid Measurement Computing and NI hardware. NI's new NIDAQ driver is written in a way to make it hard for other software manufacturers to support their hardware in a general way. They presumably do this because they want you to use LabView or one of their other products. So, we don't really offer NI support, especially streaming support.

Measurement Computing was actually purchased by NI about 4 or 5 years ago, so MC is just NI. Presumably they did it to offer a lower end product without bleeding from their other more expensive stuff. Their universal library is a bit easier to work with and we support it, however, they didn't make it generic enough and every time they release new hardware, we have to rebuild our driver to support it, even though it just means adding it to a table.

Anyhow, very few DF users use MC or NI hardware, so we don't really keep our drivers up to date. So, they work with older hardware but not the latest stuff.

That all said, why not just get a LabJack UE9 or UE9 Pro and use it for your thermocouples? Its cheaper, fast, and has more channels (plus its not a dedicated thermocouple device, so is more flexible). The only thing it doesn't do is give you is actual temperature readings with CJC but you can do that completely in DAQFactory software by reading the internal UE9 temperature as well. As to whether you can stream two LabJacks at the same time I can't say, but I'll have the LabJack folks answer that one. My guess is that there is a way, at least over Ethernet, though it may require some software tricks.

[LabJackSupport]

With the LabJack UD family of devices (U3/U6/UE9) you can stream from multiple at the same time, but they are not synchronized. Probably not a big deal for DF, but over time one unit will give more

The UE9 does support stream synchronization, but it is not always easy to handle in software.

The ideal would be if you stream from 1 device and then use other devices for the lower speed thermocouple data. The UE9 is pretty good with thermocouples, but if you don't need Ethernet the U6 is even better.

[AzeoTech]

Yes, actually, I believe if you start the stream on two devices in the same call to the UD from DAQFactory it will at least appear that the streams are synced (i.e. time stamps match up), this is because DAQFactory calcs the time stamps based on the start time of the stream and the actual interval. I suppose the interval might be slightly different between devices and this is what the LabJack folks are talking about.