SCXI Accessory selection in LabVIEW?

[Dan Press]

I've called NI Support (#7136887) on this one, but I am not sure how much hope I should have.

The application is a data acquisition system with lots of options for calculations and the ability to make use of various pieces of measurement hardware. The customer would like to use SCXI-1102 modules in several different ways. Some 1102 modules will be cabled up to TC-2095 thermocouple input terminal blocks. Other 1102 modules will have SCXI-1300 or SCXI-1303 terminal blocks on them and will be used for either general purpose transducer inputs or thermistor / RTD inputs.

For the sake of simplifying the setup of the system and making use of configuration tools already provided to us by Uncle NI, I would like to read the Accessory selection that the user made in MAX. I can enumerate the SCXI modules with no problem. Once I know which modules are there and where they are, I can set up my scan lists and acquire away. However, I want to be able to tell which modules have thermocouples (the ones with the TC-2095) and which ones have other stuff (the ones with SCXI-1300 or SCXI-1303 terminal blocks).

I know the accessory information is stored in MAX's configuration file once the user specifies it. MAX does remember the selections just fine. However, I do not see a DAQmx property that lets me see the selection in LabVIEW.

My current hope is for one of two things.

1. A parser written in LabVIEW that can let me check out the accessory selections.

2. An automation interface (ActiveX or other API) to MAX.

I know the Community has asked for #2 for years, and I thought I heard something about it recently.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted if I hear something from support. If any of you have something to add or suggest, please post it here.

Thanks!

[Dan Press]

I got the following email from the AE. It doesn't look like there's much hope for this one. Not the end of the world, but it would have been nice to get out what the user put in to MAX.

Dan -

Thank you for contacting National Instruments. Unfortunately, there is not

an easy solution to find out the accessory of a SCXI module. We

currently do not offer a VI or property node that will output the

accessory type. The closed function available is the Property Node

-- Chassis:Module Device Names Property which gives the names of the

modules in the chassis (not the accessories).

One possible solution, like you mentioned, is parsing through the

configuration file to find the accessory connected to the module. If

you export your configuration wizard as a tab Delimited text file,

can you parse through to the file to determine the accessory

connected to the file. To save NI-DAQmx config file, select File