Finding NI Documentation

[Jay14159265]

I am having a hard time finding documents for NI hardware. Today I needed to find out the maximum input voltage and other pin info for a NI USB-6008 so I ended up on the  NI support page for the USB-6008: 

https://www.ni.com/en-us/support/model.usb-6008.html

But I remembered using a doc in the past that had much more info than anything I could find on the USB-6001 support page. So I backed out and googled usb-6008, and I found this: 

https://c7076-control.chem.sfu.ca/interlock_monitoring_system_resources/usb6008.pdf

Which is exactly what I was looking for. I went back onto the NI USB-6008 support page and looked all over but I could not find this User Guide. So my question is, do any of you guys know how to get to this 'old style' pdf documentation on ni.com? I find that it is much more comprehensive than the  HTML  'documents' that you get directed to currently on the ni.com website  

[jenniferbni]

Hi, Jayson

I found these for you:

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-specs/page/specs.html

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

I hope they are helpful.

[Jay14159265]

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@jenniferbni wrote:

Hi, Jayson

I found these for you:

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-specs/page/specs.html

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

I hope they are helpful.

---

Hello Jenny, 

Thanks for the post. I found those documents, and they were not what I was looking for, as described in the previous post.  I was looking for the User Guide for the USB-6008. I have attached the USB-6008 user guide here so you can see that it exists. The question is if it exists on the NI website and how to navigate to it. I could not find the content of the USB-6008 user guide anywhere on the NI site. 

[Gregory]

I found this user guide from NI.com: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

I prefer the PDF over web page navigation. But, here is how to find it from ni.com:

Start typing "USB-6008"
Click third entry "NI USB-6008/6009 user guide"
Click first result "NI USB-6008/6009 User Guide"

[jenniferbni]

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@Jay14159265 wrote:

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@jenniferbni wrote:

Hi, Jayson

I found these for you:

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-specs/page/specs.html

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

I hope they are helpful.

---

Hello Jenny, 

Thanks for the post. I found those documents, and they were not what I was looking for, as described in the previous post.  I was looking for the User Guide for the USB-6008. I have attached the USB-6008 user guide here so you can see that it exists. The question is if it exists on the NI website and how to navigate to it. I could not find the content of the USB-6008 user guide anywhere on the NI site. 

---

I understand now. Thank you for reporting this. 

I performed a search on ni.com and found theuser guide here: 

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-oem-features/resource/371728b.pdf

Please note that the Product Documentation center went through major updates this past weekend, so some thing might still be 'catching up'. 

[Jay14159265]

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@jenniferbni wrote:

---

---

I understand now. Thank you for reporting this. 

I performed a search on ni.com and found theuser guide here: 

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-oem-features/resource/371728b.pdf

Please note that the Product Documentation center went through major updates this past weekend, so some thing might still be 'catching up'. 

---

Hello Jenny, 

I appreciate your perseverance, but this is not the correct document.  The link you posted is a user guide for a USB-6008-6009 OEM, which is the OEM version of the USB-6008 and does not have the same information as the user guide for the "non OEM" USB-6008. If you compare the PDF that I posted last time to the link you provided you can see that they are very different documents, each one specific to that product. 

Each of these has different information about two similar (but not identical) products. I'm looking for the one on the left. 

[Gregory · Accepted solution]

Ok, if you go to the link I posted: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

Then look on the right-hand side you will see a tiny "pdf" button. Click on that >> entire manual. It then generates the PDF from the online manual, so it will look a bit different than the original one you had, but hopefully will have all of the information.

PDF button

[Jay14159265]

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@Gregory wrote:

Ok, if you go to the link I posted: https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/usb-6008-6009-feature/page/introduction.html

Then look on the right-hand side you will see a tiny "pdf" button. Click on that >> entire manual. It then generates the PDF from the online manual, so it will look a bit different than the original one you had, but hopefully will have all of the information.

PDF button

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I did this and it worked! I got a less desirable version of the original PDF. Didn't they say there were 'upgrading'? 

[Gregory]

Yeah, I guess on one hand you got the most updated version from 2023-02-20. But I hope they find a way to make it so tables don't span multiple pages.

[Yndigegn]

Hi

I find the new HTML conversions of older PDF manuals a fundamental mistake by NI.

You read a few paragraphs, then have to jump to another web page and read more. Links to here, there and everywhere. Completely fragmented and thus un-organized.

Even the claimed document age is wrong. Most of these webpages claim they was generated in now 2023. Like NI having a 'touch' script running. Maybe that date is true, but the content was generated years/decade(s) ago. Other similar document systems at least keep a changes log.

And the option to generate a PDF version generates an ugly document with inconsistent paragraph layouts and improper font sizes. A real eyesore. Sometimes you get an bookmark index. Sometimes you don't. 

All the manual file names in the older day were nondescript but nobody cared because they were indexed by the mighty Lotus Notes Server. It is now obviously gone.

Imagine my surprise today when I was looking for something and by accident got a reference to something called 'Data Management Software Suite'. Curiosity drove me to see what that could be.

And here it is :

A NI web page in the normal layout, but with an integrated PDF reader showing a proper NI generated PDF file from 2018.

I thought it was verboten within NI to write documents and publish them as PDF.

My hope for the future of NI Documentation just got a tick upwards.

Regards