From the course: Data Acquisition with LabVIEW

Connect a DAQ device - LabVIEW Tutorial

From the course: Data Acquisition with LabVIEW

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Connect a DAQ device

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- [Instructor] After you've verified that the DAQmx driver was successfully installed, you're ready to connect a DAQ device. The USB-6001 that I'll be using for demonstrations throughout this course is a small box with screw terminals to connect wires on either side. And, as its name suggests, the USB-6001 connects via USB. When I plug it into my computer, this blue LED lights up to show that it's connected and getting power from the USB bus. My computer recognizes the device and gives me this popup menu with several options. I can test the device, start writing an application for it, configure it, or view its documentation. I'll select this middle option to configure the device, which opens up measurement and automation explorer. I can see my USB-6001 under the devices and interfaces section. Since this is the first device I've connected to this computer, it's given the default name Dev1. As I connect or simulate additional devices, they'll be named Dev2, Dev3, and so on. This is the name that will be used to reference the device and LabVIEW programs, so if you want to change it to something else, you can right-click on the device and select rename. However, I'll leave it as Dev1 for now. To make sure the device is functioning and communicating properly, I can right-click on it and select self test, which we'll check to make sure the device can pass a basic functionality test. I see here that the self test completed successfully. If the device fails the self test or is having some other type of incorrect behavior, it can sometimes help to reset the device by right-clicking on it and selecting reset, which will clear all of the device's tasks and associated memory. If I want to learn how to connect signals to this particular device, I can right-click on it and select device pinouts. That brings up the DAQmx help page, which shows what each of its input and output terminals do. USB DAQ devices, like the one I'm using for this course, are designed to be simple to use with plug and play functionality. But DAQ devices also come in other form factors, like the CompactDAQ or PXI platforms, with different types of communication buses. If you're using a different type of DAQ device, then I recommend this getting started guide for setting up data acquisition hardware on NI.com. Select the type of hardware you're using and the guide will walk you through the physical connections and software steps to get up and running.

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