NI 5660 Driver Installation Process for Newer Versions of LabVIEW

Updated Aug 31, 2023

Environment

Hardware

  • PXI-5660

Software

  • LabVIEW

Driver

  • NI-RFSA 2.6

I want to install driver support for the PXI-5660 in LabVIEW 2013 or later on my Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP PC.  What is the process for installing this support?
The NI 5660 is not supported on Windows 10 or later: PXI-5660 Vector Signal Analyzer Compatibility With Windows 10 and Later.

  1. Install the desired version of LabVIEW. 
  2. Install RFSA 2.6 . Ensure that you select the option to also install ni5660 support for LabVIEW 2012.  To get this option, you must choose a custom install.
  3. Verify that you have Traditional NI-DAQ in addition to RFSA 2.6 in NI MAX.
  4. Copy the contents of the LabVIEW 2012 folder at C:\Program Files\National Instruments and paste them into the desired LabVIEW version folder at the same location.  When given the option, choose to merge with existing folders.
  5. Install the Spectral Measurements Toolkit version which supports your desired LabVIEW version.
  6. Install the newer version of NI-RFSA  that supports your LabVIEW version. This will overwrite NI-RFSA 2.6, but it will leave the ni5660 API and Traditional NI-DAQ that was installed with it.
 

Additional Information

The PXI-5660 has its own software API, referred to as ni5660. Use of the PXI-5660 also requires Traditional NI-DAQ. In older versions of RFSA (2.6 and earlier), installing the RFSA driver would also install the ni5660 API, which would also install Traditional NI-DAQ. These were three separate drivers that would all be installed when installing RFSA 2.6 or earlier. After RFSA 2.6, ni5660 was no longer installed automatically (and therefore neither was Traditional NI-DAQ). Traditional NI-DAQ is not supported on Windows 10 or later: Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 Support.