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Can I Use Lookout to Acquire Data from My National Instruments DAQ Device?

Primary Software: Lookout
Primary Software Version: 3.6
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem:
I have a Lookout process that needs to monitor an analog input value on my National Instruments DAQ device. Is it possible to bring data from my DAQ device directly into Lookout from the NI-DAQ driver?

Solution:
You can do this using either NI-DAQmx or Traditional NI-DAQ but the methods are different depending on the driver.

DAQmx
  1. Open Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and create a DAQmx Global Channel for the channel that you would like to monitor in Lookout.
  2. In your Lookout process, create an OPCClient object.
  3. Set the server name of your OPCClient object to National Instruments.LookoutOPCServer. Leave the rest of the parameters at their defaults and click OK.
  4. Expand the OPCClient object in the object explorer and you will see a folder with the same name as your computer. Under this folder you will see a System folder and under that a DAQmx folder. This folder contains data items for each of your DAQmx virtual channels. You can read from this data item to get the value of an input on your DAQ card. Similarly you can write to these data items to use outputs on your DAQ device.

Traditional DAQ
  1. Open Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and create a Traditional DAQ Global Virtual Channel for the channel that you would like to monitor in Lookout.
  2. In your Lookout process, create an OPCNIDAQ object.
  3. Expand the OPCNIDAQ object in Object Explorer. Your Traditional DAQ channels are all listed under this object in the appropriate folder (Analog Input, Analog Output, Digital Input, or Digital Output). You can read from this data item to get the value of an input on your DAQ card. Similarly you can write to these data items to use outputs on your DAQ card.


Related Links:
Developer Zone Tutorial: OPC for Data Acquisition Using NI-DAQmx 8
KnowledgeBase 3VR7T8AA: Where Are My DAQ-OPC Items When Using NI-DAQmx 8.0?


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Report Date: 10/18/2006
Last Updated: 10/23/2006
Document ID: 42HHL1CW

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