Can I use my DAS-8 Series Board in LabVIEW (LV)?

Can I use my DAS-8 Series Board in LabVIEW (LV)?

Product(s) :

PCI/ISA Plug-In Boards: DAS-8, DAS-8/AO, DAS-8/LT, DAS-8PGA

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Question : Can I use my DAS-8 Series Board in LabVIEW?

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Answer: Ony if you are really determined to do so.

Software development halted for these boards in the early 1990s. These boards were designed in the days of DOS, and so lack some hardware features necessary for robust operation in operating systems such as Windows that can introduce delays in removing data from the hardware. For this reason, Keithley does not recommend the use of these boards in new applications. One of the boards in the DAS-800 Series (DAS-800, DAS-801 or DAS-802) will give a pin-to-pin compatible upgrade and access to a full suite of VIs for LabVIEW.

However, if you are determnined, there are a couple options to use these boards from LabVIEW: register level control or use the DriverLINX ActiveX control.

Register Level: inherent to LabVIEW are some In Port and Out Port VIs. Use of these VIs along with the register map of the board (outlined in the hardware manual) will allow you to program the card to acquire data. Single value, or polled mode, acquisitions are relatively easy to implement. A paced mode task that uses the Interrupt mode of the board will be significantly more difficult.

DriverLINX ActiveX: Though not a conventional approach to using plug-in board hardware in LabVIEW, the ActiveX control of DriverLINX could be used. It is recommended that you have LabVIEW version 5.1 or higher. DriverLINX for these series of boards is limited to operation in Win3.x or Win9x. An example is available in the software download center.

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