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®
Measure
Data Acquisition
User Manual
August 1996 Edition
Part Number 321004B -01
' Copyright 1995, 1996 National Instruments Corporation.
All rights reserved.
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Internet Support Email: measure.support@natinst.com National Instruments Home Page: http://www.natinst.com FTP Site: ftp.natinst.com Bulletin Board Support BBS United States: (512) 794-5422 or (800) 327-3077 BBS United Kingdom: 01635 551422 BBS France: 1 48 65 15 59 FaxBack Support (512) 418-1111 Telephone Support (U.S.) Tel: (512) 795-8248 Fax: (512) 794-5678 International Offices Australia 03 9 879 9422, Austria 0662 45 79 90 0, Belgium 02 757 00 20, Canada (Ontario) 519 622 9310, Canada (Queb
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Important Information Warranty The media on which you receive National Instruments software are warranted not to fail to execute programming instructions, due to defects in materials and workmanship, for a period of 90 days from date of shipment, as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. National Instruments will, at its option, repair or replace software media that do not execute programming instructions if National Instruments receives notice of such defects during the warranty period.
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About This Manual Organization of This Manual Conventions Used in This Manual Customer Communication xi Chapter 1 Introduction Using Measure with Your DAQ Device DAQ Device Overview Installing Measure Manually Adding or Removing the DAQ Add-In Uninstalling Measure Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks Selecting a Data Acquisition Task Configuring an Analog Input Task Configuring an Analog Output Task Adding Tasks to the DAQ Menu Saving Tasks Managing Tasks in a Workbook Chapter
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Table of Contents Chapter 4 Analog Input Reference DAQ Device Overview Analog Input Configuration Overview Analog Input Scan List Channels High Limit Low Limit Scan Information Number of scans Scale to volts Timing Settings Scans/second External scan clock Display At cell In Columns In Rows Trigger Reference Mode Reference Advanced Timing Settings Chapter 5 Analog Output Reference Analog Output Configuration Overview Advanced Configuration Chapter 6 Using Measure Data Acquisition Tasks with VBA
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Table of Contents Appendix B Error Codes Appendix C Trouble Shooting Appendix D Customer Communication Glossary Index Figures Figure 1-1. Add-Ins Dialog Box Figure 2-1. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box Figure 2-2. Analog Input Configuration Figure 2-3. Task Description Dialog Box Figure 2-4. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box Figure 2-5. Analog Output Configuration Dialog Box Figure 2-6. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box Figure 2-7. Adding Tasks to the DAQ Menu Figure 2-8. The DAQ Menu Figure 2-9. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box Figure 3-1. Sel
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Table of Contents Tables Table 2-1. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box Options Table 3-1. SCXI Channel Strings Syntax Table 4-1. Examples of Valid Channel Strings Table 4-2. Analog Input Configuration Buttons/Options Table 4-3. Choices for Hardware Digital Trigger Table 4-4. Choices for Analog Input Mode Dialog Box Table 4-5. Choices for Advanced Timing Table 5-1. Analog Output Configuration Reference Table 5-2. Advanced Analog Output Configuration Options Table A-1. Analog Input Configuration Programmability
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The Measure Data Acquisition User Manual describes how to use the Measure Data Acquisition Add-In with National Instruments data acquisition boards to acquire data into Microsoft Excel. You should be familiar with the operation of Microsoft Excel, your computer, your computer’s operating system, and your data acquisition (DAQ) board. Organization of This Manual The Measure Data Acquisition User Manual is organized as follows. • Chapter 1, Introduction, helps you install the Measure Data Acquisi
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About This Manual • Chapter 6, Using Measure Data Acquisition Tasks with VBA, describes how to run tasks from within Visual Basic for Applications. • Appendix A, DAQ Hardware Capabilities, contains SCXI information and tables that summarize the analog I/O capabilities of National Instruments data acquisition devices you might use with Measure for Windows. • Appendix B, Error Codes, describes the errors that can occur while using the Measure DAQ Add-In. • Appendix C, Troubleshooting, describes so
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About This Manual monospace Text in this font denotes text or characters that are to be literally input from the keyboard, sections of code, programming examples, and syntax examples. This font is also used for the proper names of disk drives, paths, directories, programs, subprograms, subroutines, device names, functions, variables, filenames, and extensions, and for statements and comments taken from program code. » The » symbol leads you through nested menu items, and dialog box options to a
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Introduction This chapter helps you install the Measure Data Acquisition (DAQ) Add-In. You should have installed and configured your DAQ hardware already. If you have not done so, please refer to the NI-DAQ User Manual for PC Compatibles that came with your device for instructions on installation and configuration. Using Measure with Your DAQ Device Measure is designed to work with many different National Instruments DAQ devices. Before you can use Measure, you must install and configure your DA
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Chapter 1 Introduction DAQ Device Overview Measure is an easy-to-use spreadsheet interface for acquiring data with a wide range of National Instruments DAQ devices. Because Measure works with so many different devices, the functionality and performance of the software often varies based on the particular DAQ device you use. Although Measure senses the type of DAQ device you are using, you might select options in the task configuration that are not supported by your particular device. Measure
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Chapter 1 Introduction Manually Adding or Removing the DAQ Add-In To add the DAQ Add-In manually, complete the following steps. 1. Select Tools»Add-Ins. 2. In the Add-Ins dialog box, search the Add-Ins Available list box for the Measure Data Acquisition Add-In entry. Click in the checkbox next to the Measure Data Acquisition Add-In entry. If you cannot find the entry, click the Browse button and look for DAQ.XLA in the directory where you installed Measure. To remove the DAQ Add-In manuall
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Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks After you install and configure your hardware and install the Measure Data Acquisition Add-In, you are ready to acquire data. This chapter contains a tutorial for each of the following basic functions. • Selecting a Data Acquisition task • Configuring an Analog Input task • Configuring an Analog Output task • Adding tasks to the DAQ menu • Saving tasks • Managing tasks in a workbook You only need to read the sections for the functions that you use in y
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks Figure 2-1 . DAQ Tasks Dialog Box The DAQ Tasks dialog box manages the I/O operations, or tasks, that you define with Measure. From this dialog box, you can create new tasks, edit existing tasks, and run I/O tasks interactively to test their operation. 3. Select a DAQ device from the Data acquisition device drop-down listbox at the top of the dialog box. The list of devices available in the drop-down listbox is taken from the devices that
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks Figure 2-2. Analog Input Configuration Configuring an Analog Input Task From the Analog Input Configuration dialog box, you can specify all the parameters for an analog input operation. In the following steps, you create a simple analog input task. Refer to Chapter 4, Analog Input Reference, for more detailed information about the different options for analog input. 1. The Analog Input Scan List at the top of the dialog box is where you sp
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks example in which there is only one channel specified, the number of scans is equal to the number of points acquired from channel 0. If you were to specify two channels in your channel list, 100 scans would result in 200 points of data acquired (100 from each channel). Type 100 in the Number of Scans field. 3. The Scan Rate section of the dialog box is where you specify how fast you would like to acquire the data. The default setting of 100
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks 7. Click on the OK button to return to the DAQ Tasks dialog box, shown in Figure 2-4. Notice that you now have a task named Read Channel 0 in your task list. Notice also that the description for this new task appears in the dialog box as well. Figure 2-4. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box 8. Click on the Run button to execute the task. When the task completes, there are 100 datapoints in column A of your worksheet. Configuring an Analog Output Task If
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks 1. From the DAQ Task dialog box, select AO from the Create a task section of the dialog box to display the Analog Output Configuration dialog box, shown in Figure 2-5. Figure 2-5. Analog Output Configuration Dialog Box 2. Type 0 in the Channel input field. 3. Type $A$1:$A$10 in the Data cells input field. You manually can type this range, or highlight the input field and drag particular areas of your worksheet to specify a cell range. Th
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Chapter 2 Getting Started with Data Acquisition Tasks dialog box. Notice that your new analog output task appears in the task list, shown in Figure 2-6. Figure 2-6. DAQ Tasks Dialog Box 10. Highlight the Output 10 iterations task and click on the Run button to execute the analog output task. Make sure you have valid voltage data in cells A1:A10 before running the task. Adding Tasks to the DAQ Menu Now that the two tasks are configured and tested from the DAQ Tasks dialog box, you may want to
