MAX and NI-DAQmx

[JayKay]

Dear Sirs,

I'm very new to Labview.

I have few basic questions.They are as follows:-

1.What is MAX (Measurement and automation explorer)?

(From this i can notice the instruments which are connected through GPIB!)

2.Can this MAX can show me the instruments list which are connected RS232,USB..ETC. also?

3.Why we need to install MAX separately?

4.what are the features it has for us?

4.What are the difficulties we will face without MAX?

5.What is NI-DAQmx and how we can differentiate from MAX?

Note: I have 8.5 Version of Labview!

Thank you very much for reading and help me to understand!

Cheers!

Jaikanth

[Ton Plomp]

Hi Jaikanth,

a lot of (good) questions on MAX.

Basiccally MAX is the driver configuration tool of National Instruments.

I use it as a configuration tool for Real-Time systems, DAQmx cards and ethernet cameras.

I have used it for testing connections with serial devices and GPIB devices.

Automatically MAX can't show RS232 and usb-devices, however it can function as a serial interface to those ports for testing purposes.

MAX isn't directly tied to LabVIEW it is also used when using C++ with National Instrument drivers.

For DAQ it has a lot of features, for instance you can create custom scales for special channels or modify tasks so you don't have to do this in LabVIEW.

As I said MAX is a configuration tool for NI-DAQmx (amongst others). DAQmx is a driverset for NI data-acqusition devices.

Good luck,

Ton

[Karissap]

QUOTE

1.What is MAX (Measurement and automation explorer)?

Basically it is a program for managing all devices, interfaces and software supported by National Instruments.

QUOTE

(From this i can notice the instruments which are connected through GPIB!)

Yes. Expand the devices and interfaces configuration and you should see your GPIB instruments, if not the NI-488.2 software might not be properly installed

QUOTE

2.Can this MAX can show me the instruments list which are connected RS232,USB..ETC. also?

It will show you instruments connected under RS232 and USB only if they are NI products or supported by NI.

I have several NI USB devices I configure with MAX.

It also provides a generic RS232 IO utility

QUOTE

3.Why we need to install MAX separately?

Because it is a seperate software utility program

QUOTE

4.what are the features it has for us?

It can help you troubleshoot and calibrate instruments, provide an overview of what is connected to the system and what driver versions are in use.

You can also setup DAQmx scales, channels and tasks.

QUOTE

4.What are the difficulties we will face without MAX?

Max is a great utility if you are using NI hardware products. You might have more difficulty troubleshooting instrument errors etc and configuring NI hardware without it.

QUOTE

5.What is NI-DAQmx and how we can differentiate from MAX?

NI-DAXmx is drivers and software API for newer NI Data Acquisition devices See Getting Started with NI-DAQmx

[mross]

I would only elaborate on item 3.

Max is for hardware management. LabVIEW is software deveolpment system.

When you write labVIEW code the software is being compiled.

When you work witn MAX you are configuring hardware.

When preparing to perform data acquisition you start out by attaching the signals and signal conditioning devices to the DAQ hardware. Then you test those signals in MAX to make certain you have the proper cofiguration. Then you can write VIs drawing data from those channels and you know if there are problems the hardware is functioning as is should, and the trouble is on the software side.

You can create "Tasks" in MAX which are brought into the VI and are very high level program functions, or you can break these Tasks down into smaller, lower level code bits that can be customized. In this way MAX is a great productivity aid and much more than a mere hardware configuration utility.

If you follow this process - wire up the signals, configure MAX, test the signals and acquisition in MAX, export the DAQ task to LabVIEW and create the VI (and sub VIs) which supervise the acquisition and perform other analysis, record keeping, communication, report generation, and so on, functions - If you follow this process you may quickly accomplish your goals.

You will find that LabVIEW makes it easy to create and test the small functions of a complex programming task and MAX helps by separating out the hardware layer.

Mike