NI-DAQmx Simulated Devices

Publish Date: Oct 30, 2012 | 43 Ratings | 3.51 out of 5

Table of Contents
1. Overview 2. How to Create an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device 3. How to Use an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device 4. Considerations for Using NI-DAQmx Simulated Devices 5. Want More NI-DAQmx Information? The National Instruments Getting Started with NI-DAQmx Series is aimed at helping you learn NI-DAQmx programming fundamentals. Through video and text tutorials, this series will take you from verifying your device's operation in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) to programming data acquisition applications using LabVIEW. It is intended for both the beginner who wants to learn how to use the DAQ Assistant, as well as the experienced user who wishes to take advantage of advanced NI-DAQmx functionality.

1. Overview
NI-DAQmx not only provides DAQ system developers a high-performance driver, it also includes many measurement services designed to increase productivity. One of the newest and most exciting measurement services added to NI-DAQmx is NI-DAQmx simulated devices. A simulated NI-DAQmx device is a replica of a device created using the NI-DAQmx Simulated Device option in the Create New menu of MAX for the purpose of operating a function or program without hardware. An NI-DAQmx simulated device behaves similarly to a real device. Its driver is loaded, and programs using it are fully verified. This tutorial explains the basics of NI-DAQmx simulated devices, including how to create them, how to use them, as well as some considerations when using NI-DAQmx simulated devices. Follow this tutorial using an installed copy of NI-DAQmx 7.4 or later and National Instruments application development software LabVIEW 7.x or later or LabVIEW SignalExpress Lite. If you do not own National Instruments LabVIEW 7.x or higher, you can download SignalExpress Lite to help you complete this tutorial. Most of this information is also available in the Measurement & Automation Explorer Help for NI-DAQmx (installed with the NI-DAQmx driver). Additional information about NI-DAQmx simulated devices is in the NI-DAQmx Help (installed with the NI-DAQmx driver) and the DAQ Quick Start Guide (shipped with your DAQ device).

2. How to Create an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device

To create an NI-DAQmx simulated device, NI-DAQmx 7.4 or later must be installed. 1. Open Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX). NI-DAQmx simulated devices are created within MAX. Unless you unchecked the feature during installation, MAX was installed when NI-DAQmx was installed. If MAX is not installed, you must modify your installation of NI-DAQmx. 2. Right-click My System>>Devices and Interfaces and select Create New... In the subsequent dialog, select Simulated NI-DAQmx Device or Modular Instrument . The Create Simulated NI-DAQmx Device window prompts you to select a device.

Figure 1. Create an NI-DAQmx simulated device in MAX. 3. Select the device you want to create as an NI-DAQmx simulated device. With this list, you can browse the hundreds of devices supported by NI-DAQmx. You can create an NI-DAQmx simulated device of any NI-DAQmx-supported device, with the exception of the SCXI-1600 (NI-DAQmx 7.4 and later), USB-6008, USB-6009, USB-6501 and B Series devices (NI-DAQmx 7.5 and later). Note: The more drivers you have downloaded (NI-HSDIO, NI-SWITCH etc. the more options you will have to simulate)

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Figure 2. Choose from hundreds of NI-DAQmx supported devices. 4. Click OK in the Create Simulated NI-DAQmx Device window to close the window. The NI-DAQmx simulated device appears in MAX. The icon color of the NI-DAQmx simulated devices differs from real devices. Real devices are green and chassis are grey while simulated devices and chassis are yellow.

Figure 3. NI-DAQmx simulated devices listed in MAX have yellow icons.

3. How to Use an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device

An NI-DAQmx simulated device works just as a real device. You can use NI-DAQmx simulated devices to create NI-DAQmx tasks either through the DAQ Assistant or the API. Because a real device is no longer required to create an NI-DAQmx task, NI-DAQmx simulated devices allow developers to do the following: Begin application development and logic without hardware Develop application logic on a machine other than the target system Evaluate acquisition functionality of National Instruments software without owning any hardware This section of the tutorial describes how to create an NI-DAQmx task using the DAQ Assistant, then use the task to acquire simulated data in LabVIEW or LabVIEW SignalExpress. 1. Complete the previous section to create an NI-DAQmx simulated device in MAX. 2. Create an NI-DAQmx task in the DAQ Assistant.

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a. Right-click My System>>Data Neighborhood>>NI-DAQmx Tasks and select Create New NI-DAQmx Task. A window prompts you to select the measurement type.

Figure 4. Step 1 of the DAQ Assistant: Select a measurement type b. Select Acquire SignalsAnalog InputVoltage as the measurement type for this task. A window prompts you to select the physical channels. c. Select one or more channels from the NI-DAQmx simulated device. Both real and NI-DAQmx simulated devices are available for creating NI-DAQmx tasks, and the DAQ Assistant makes no distinction between them. If you do not remember which device is a simulated device, refer to the color of the device icon in MAX. Green icons indicate a real device, and yellow icons indicate an NI-DAQmx simulated device. Hold Ctrl to select multiple channels individually, or Shift to select a range of channels.

Figure 5. Step 2 of the DAQ Assistant: Select the physical channel(s). d. Click Next. The DAQ Assistant prompts you to give the task a descriptive name.

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Figure 6. Assign a descriptive task name. e. Click Finish. A window opens prompting you to add timing and synchronization information to the task as well as add custom scaling, add or delete virtual channels, view a connection diagram, and so on. To learn more about the DAQ Assistant, refer to the DAQ Assistant Help. f. Configure the task as shown.

Figure 7. Configure your task in the DAQ Assistant. g. Click Run in the toolbar at the top of the page. Both NI-DAQmx simulated devices and real devices can be tested in the DAQ Assistant. Notice the noisy sine wave being returned as simulated data on the channels of the DAQ task.

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Figure 8. You can test NI-DAQmx tasks for NI-DAQmx simulated devices for errors and view simulated data. Note: NI-DAQmx simulated devices create a noisy sine wave for all analog input channels. Configuration of other simulated data is not available at this time. Note: NI-DAQmx tasks for NI-DAQmx simulated devices are verified just as they are on real devices. If a property is set to an invalid value, the error returned for an NI-DAQmx simulated device will be identical to the error returned for a real device. All resources necessary for the task, such as RTSI lines, PXI Trigger lines, DMA channels, counters, and so on, are counted and reserved for NI-DAQmx simulated devices just as they are on real devices. h. Save the NI-DAQmx Task. 3. Use the NI-DAQmx Task in LabVIEW SignalExpress LE (limited edition) to complete a data logging application. a. Open SignalExpress LE. If you do not have SignalExpress LE, download it or request a free CD. b. Select ToolsImport NI-DAQmx Task from MAX. c. A list of the tasks contained in MAX will be populated. Select the task created in the previous section (Simulated Device Task). d. The task settings should be the same as they were configured in MAX. Click Run in the top toolbar.

Figure 9. List of DAQmx Tasks from MAX.

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The data logging task begins. Data from the NI-DAQmx simulated device is displayed in the Real Time Data viewer. e. Click Stop task.

Figure 10. SignalExpress LE logging data using an NI-DAQmx simulated device. 4. Use the NI-DAQmx simulated device in LabVIEW. In this step we will not use the previously created NI-DAQmx task but will use a reference to the device and channel instead. a. Open LabVIEW 7.x or higher. b. Open the Example Finder by clicking HelpFind Examples. c. Open the Cont Acq&Graph Voltage-Int Clk VI found at Hardware Input and OutputDAQmxAnalog MeasurementsVoltage. This application uses physical channels explicitly entered in the physical channel control. d. Use MAX to determine the device number for the simulated device you created. The device number is in quotes next to the NI-DAQmx simulated device listed in Device and Interfaces.

Figure 11. The device number is listed next to the device e. Change the value in the Physical Channel control to Devx/ai0:4 where x is the device number from the previous step. Although we used the Physical Channel control for this example, some slight modifications to this particular example would also allow us to use the task previously created.

Figure 12. Update the Physical Channel control using the NI-DAQmx simulated device number f. Run the VI.

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Figure 13. Acquiring data from an NI-DAQmx simulated device in LabVIEW

4. Considerations for Using NI-DAQmx Simulated Devices

Reading Data All simulated devices return analog input data in the form of a full-scale sine wave with three percent of full-scale noise. When multiple channels are in the task, the data for each channel is offset slightly in time. Digital data is returned as if each 8-bit port were counting up. Counter data is always returned as 0. Simulated devices do not simulate timing, data is always immediately available for reading. Writing Data Other than verifying the data is within limits, the data written to an NI-DAQmx simulated device has no restrictions. Timing and Triggering Simulated devices created in NI-DAQmx 7.4 - 8.1 do not simulate timing. Task reads and writes will be return immediately Simulated devices created in NI-DAQmx 8.3 and later do simulate timing. Task read and write operations will simulate the actual time they would take to complete as if they were being run on a physical device. Simulated devices (all driver versions) do not simulate triggering. Triggers will return immediately. An NI-DAQmx simulated device never issues a software event or causes a timed loop to execute. Watchdog timers never expire. Non-Task Operations Operations such as self-test, calibration, and reset always succeed. Data that is normally stored on the physical device, such as serial number, is always returned as 0. Device Is Simulated Property To discover during the execution of a program whether a device is simulated, use the DeviceIsSimulated property on the NI-DAQmx Device property node. Open the All FunctionsNI MeasurementsDAQmxDAQmx AdvancedDAQmx System Setup subpalette to find this property node. The property returns true if the device is simulated.

Figure 14. Use DeviceIsSimulated property to programmatically determine if a device is simulated. Importing an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device Configuration onto a Physical Device To import the configuration of an NI-DAQmx simulated device onto a physical device, use the MAX Import and Export functions. Select FileExport and follow the prompts to export the desired NI-DAQmx simulated device as an .nce file stored on the computer. Select FileImport and follow the prompts to import the previously created .nce file. Importing requires a physical device of the same type as the NI-DAQmx simulated device. Importing a Physical Device as an NI-DAQmx Simulated Device To import a physical device configuration as an NI-DAQmx simulated device, use the MAX Import and Export functions. Select FileExport and follow the prompts to export the desired physical device as an .nce file stored on the computer. Select FileImport and follow the prompts to import the previously created .nce file. Be sure to designate the imported device as simulated. Alternative Strategy for Converting Physical and NI-DAQmx Simulated Devices Assume a device number Dev x for the NI-DAQmx simulated device, Dev y for the physical device, and Dev x and Dev y are the same model of National Instruments DAQ hardware. After developing code using Dev x, there is now a need to use the physical device. You can rename the physical device Dev x and rename the NI-DAQmx simulated device Dev y (or z). This allows the application code to remain unchanged, but the application uses a physical device instead of a simulated one.

5. Want More NI-DAQmx Information?

NI-DAQmx driver software includes tools introduced in this document in addition to many other software tools and features. To learn more about NI-DAQmxvisit some of these additional resources: Download NI-DAQmx Browse NI-DAQmx Feature Gallery

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