ADLink PCI-8133 and Labview

[Ducc]

As the topic suggests, I'm trying to get an ADLink PCI-8133 DAQ card to work with labview. I'm using the card to read the position from a stepper motor.

ADLink has a labview package (DAQ-LVIEW PnP V1.21.zip) but it does not support the 8133. I think a competent programmer could write all the Labview drivers (assuming they had access to the dll's) in a week, which leads me to suspect the dll's written for the 8133 are incompatible somehow.

Any suggestions? What do you do when you come across hardware that won't work in Labview? Are there any workarounds?

Thanks,

-James

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

As the topic suggests, I'm trying to get an ADLink PCI-8133 DAQ card to work with labview. I'm using the card to read the position from a stepper motor.

ADLink has a labview package (DAQ-LVIEW PnP V1.21.zip) but it does not support the 8133. I think a competent programmer could write all the Labview drivers (assuming they had access to the dll's) in a week, which leads me to suspect the dll's written for the 8133 are incompatible somehow.

Any suggestions? What do you do when you come across hardware that won't work in Labview? Are there any workarounds?

Thanks,

-James

5064[/snapback]

Well , the cheapest solution really is in such cases to use NI hardware. I know this sounds harsh but just checkout how much a single day of your programming time is worth and then multiplicate this with your one week estimate of creating a workable DLL interface.

The other option, if buying NI hardware is not possible, would be to sit at your desk and start creating LabVIEW VIs to interface to the ADLINK DLL for that particular card.

These two things would be at least my solutions and definitely in that order.

Rolf Kalbermatter

[Ducc]

The problem is the adlink DLL doesn't seem to want to work. I may be doing something wrong, but I've done it successfully before with other DLL's. It's not that hard, right? Just link the DLL, tell it what function to use, and add the necessary inputs and outputs?

The reason I can't just buy different hardware is that this program will run on multiple machines; I'd have to buy a lot of cards.

If I can't get the DLL working, is it my problem? Can Labview work with all DLL's?

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Ducc:

You may want to read the pdf document "Using External Code in LabView" under Help in the bookshelf. If has all the details about calling DLL's.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

The problem is the adlink DLL doesn't seem to want to work. I may be doing something wrong, but I've done it successfully before with other DLL's. It's not that hard, right? Just link the DLL, tell it what function to use, and add the necessary inputs and outputs?

The reason I can't just buy different hardware is that this program will run on multiple machines; I'd have to buy a lot of cards.

If I can't get the DLL working, is it my problem? Can Labview work with all DLL's?

5094[/snapback]

Well I would guess it is your problem in the end. It might be a bug in the DLL, a misunderstanding by you how to call the DLL or maybe even a licensing problem with the DLL. Who does know, other than Adlink?

Your last question: LabVIEW can work with more or less all DLLs. Problematic are Callback functions, and complex structures with embedded variable sized arrays or strings. But this is nothing you could not solve with an intelligent wrapper DLL (and some more or less advanced C programming knowledge).

Rolf Kalbermatter