Overview

NI-DAQmx is the driver software used to communicate with and control NI data acquisition (DAQ) devices. The NI-DAQmx Runtime is a minimal subset of NI-DAQmx comprising just the components needed for runtime access and control of NI DAQ devices. The NI DAQmx suite of JADE plugins depend on the NI-DAQmx Runtime.

When JADE installs the NI-DAQmx Runtime dependency, all of the components necessary for your plugins to control NI hardware are installed, along with a useful configuration tool named MAX (short for Measurement and Automation Explorer). MAX displays installed NI devices and allows quick validation and configuration of NI hardware and other standard interfaces such as serial ports.

As with most JADE plugin dependencies, this dependency is installed automatically when selected / included in a bundle (*.jadb file), saving you the hassle of having to manually install it.

Can I run multiple plugins which access the same hardware?

The short answer is: yes, and it’s common! The long answer is: JADE plugins do not impart any constraints on how many underlying DAQmx tasks can be run simultaneously. The only constraints are those inherent to NI hardware, often related to the number of hardware-timed DAQmx tasks which can run simultaneously on a given board/module. These constraints are often related to the available hardware timing resources (often referred to as System Timing Controller, or STC, resources) on the board, module, or platform. As a general rule (though there may be exceptions), NI multifunction DAQ devices allow at least one hardware-timed task per acquisition / generation type (i.e. Analog Input, Analog Output, Digital Input, Digital Output, Counter Input, Counter Output). Counters often break this rule and allow a task per counter, but note that some counter meaurements actually use multiple counters (ex. frequency measurement using the two-counter method). Software-timed tasks (which do not rely on such hardware timing resources; i.e. where you do not configure an explicit sampling rate for the task, but simply use software timing, such as waiting in a loop, to time your acquisition) also break this rule, often allowing a task per analog output channel, digital input line, and digital output line. Analog input capabilities often remain contrained to a single DAQmx task per board, however some NI hardware does allow for simultaneous analog input tasks, often owing to dedicated timing hardware for each channel.

For more information on parallel DAQmx tasks visit the NI Knowledge Base article Number of Parallel DAQmx Tasks on NI Multifunction Devices

More Information

For more information from NI, visit the NI-DAQmx and/or MAX documentation on NI’s website.