Difference of the I/O Terminals in LabVIEW

Updated Oct 2, 2024

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW

Issue Details

  • I have bought multiple NI devices such as PXIe-6363, PXIe-5105 and PXIe-5451. However I am unable to find the device name for PXIe-5105 and PXIe-5451 in the LabVIEW I/O physical terminal. I can only select PXIe-6363. How can I find the device name under the I/O terminal for PXIe-5105 and PXIe-5451?
  • NI MAX could detect the devices properly. However when I use LabVIEW, I could not find my devices such as PXIe-5105 and PXIe-5451 in the I/O terminal. Why does this issue happen?
  • What is the difference between the I/O terminal in NI-DAQmx, NI-SCOPE and NI-FGEN?

Solution

PXIe-6363 is a PXI Multifunction I/O Module, which required NI-DAQmx driver; PXIe-5105 is a PXI Oscilloscope which required NI-SCOPE driver; while PXIe-5451 is a PXI Waveform Generator which required NI-FGEN driver. Since each of these devices requires different driver, you may need to use different I/O terminals with different configuration to display the device name in the I/O terminal.

The easiest way to make sure the I/O terminal shows the respective device name is to install the corresponding driver and call the function from the driver. For example, if you are using NI-SCOPE, you could drag the niScope Initialization.vi into the block diagram and right click on the resource name terminal and select Create Control or Create Constant

The I/O terminal in NI-DAQmx differs from that in NI-SCOPE, NI-FGEN, NI-DMM, and NI-DCPower etc. This is because NI-SCOPE, NI-FGEN, NI-DMM and NI-DCPower are interchangeable virtual instrument (IVI)–compliant instrument driver while NI-DAQmx is a basic driver designed for data acquisition tasks. IVI drivers are more sophisticated instrument drivers that feature increased performance and flexibility for more intricate test applications that require interchangeability, state caching, and/or instrument simulation. When you right click on the I/O terminals of the NI-DAQmx and IVI drivers, you will notice the option selection is different.
IO terminal differences.png
Note that on the option for I/O Terminal of NI-DAQmx, there is an I/O Name Filtering selection; while on the option for I/O Terminal of IVI driver, there is a Select IVI Class selection.


You could use I/O Name Filtering to make the changes when you want to change the I/O Type and select Internal Channels as mentioned in this article: Why Can't I Find the Internal Counters on My NI cDAQ Chassis? Meanwhile, you could change the IVI Class configuration for NI-SCOPE, NI-DMM. and NI-FGEN devices etc. by selecting the Select IVI Class with their respective class.

Select IVI class.png

 


 

Additional Information

If you are new to the devices, you could always refer to the NI Shipping examples in LabVIEW. Open LabVIEW, select Help >> Find Examples. On the NI Example Finder, select Hardware Input and Output >> Modular Instrument, and open any relevant folder that matches your devices to launch the examples.