Digital output during logging task

[jmoore23]

Hi,

I'm interested in setting up a logging task to monitor a number (around 40) of voltage input channels, and a handful of RTD inputs using a combination of 2 x NI 9205s and a NI 9216 mounted in a NI 9178 cDAQ.

I'm fairly confident with setting up the logging side of things in FlexLogger; however, I'd also like to be able to provide a digital output using a NI 9401 based on a button click (which I'm attempting to do using events). This is to provide a tare signal to one of the sensors that I'm monitoring, and it would be useful to be able to do this within the same dashboard as the logging. 

I'm not sure if this is something that is inherently not possible to do in FlexLogger, or if I'm just doing something incorrectly, but it seems as soon as I configure an output channel on the NI 9401, if any of the input channels are already configured, it throws the following error:

"An attempt has been made to configure a trigger without configuring the appropriate sample clock properties or when Sample Timing Type was set to OnDemand..."

This also happens if I do it the other way round and configure the digital output first; the same error pops up as soon as I add an input.

To confirm, I'm using:

• FlexLogger 2024 Q2
• NI 9178 cDAQ chassis
• 2 x NI 9205
• 1 x NI 9216
• 1 x NI 9401 (all channels set to digital output)

Any guidance would be gratefully received!

Cheers,

[santo_13]

As per the documentation, you can generate software timed Digital Outputs

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/flexlogger/page/configuring-digital-in-channel-spec.html#:~:tex....

[jmoore23]

Hi Santosh,

Thank you for sending this over, this is indeed the process that I have followed that produces an error (if an input channel is already configured on one of the other modules). If I follow this without any other channels configured, then it works fine. It seems to be the combination of input and output that is causing the error.

Thanks, 

[Brad]

I tried reproducing this with a clean install of FlexLogger 2024Q2 and simulating the HW you mentioned, but it worked fine for me. Does it work for you if you use simulated HW? If this is also failing, could you send a simple project to reproduce this issue so we can investigate further. Let me know if the simulated HW works for you and I can try to find the same HW you mentioned to set it up with real HW (please send you project files as well to ensure I'm using the same setup) .

Thanks,

Brad

[jmoore23]

Hi Brad, apologies for the lengthy delay on this. Unfortunately, holidays and work travels got in the way of being able to test this out. I have now just been able to have a go at simulating the setup, and as you found, this seems to work with simulated hardware.

I just double-checked employing the same setup on the real hardware again, and the error still flagged up. So maybe this is more of a hardware limitation rather than a software-related? 

In any case, please find attached an example of the project I've used. This is an extremely simple setup (ie 1 voltage input and 1 digital output) to ensure I wasn't doing anything silly that was causing the issue.

[Brad]

Sorry for my lengthy delay as well...I had missed the notification about your response. Let me find some hardware to try and reproduce this issue.

Thanks,

Brad

[jmoore23]

As a brief update to this, I seem to have discovered that this only occurs on a particular industrial PC that I am using for the task. When I plug my laptop directly into the same NI setup, there seems to be no issues with the digital output. These are both Windows 11 machines, both with 32 GB RAM, but the IPC does only have an Intel Atom x6425RE, so maybe it's a performance limitation?

[Brad · Accepted solution]

Maybe the machines have different versions of FlexLogger or DAQ installed. If they do have different version, I would recommend updating the machine that's doesn't work. If they have the same version, does updating the non-working machine to the latest FlexLogger help?

Thanks,

Brad

[jmoore23]

Hi Brad,

That was it! I was running 2024 Q2 on the IPC, and 2024 Q3 on my laptop. I've updated to Q3 on the IPC and now it is working. Thanks for the suggestion! 

[Brad]

Glad that fixed it!