Emulate NI USB-6501 for .NET SDK (DAQmx)

[dsosunov]

Hey, Community

I'm new to working with the NI (National Instruments) stack and seeking some advice on a challenge I'm facing. Our solution currently uses NI USB-6501 devices to register digital signals from external units, and we're reading this input using the NI DAQmx SDK. The issue is that we have limited access to lab devices for testing, so I’m hoping to emulate the NI device using MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer) or LabVIEW.

Initially, I tried creating a virtual (emulated) device in MAX Studio, but unfortunately, it always returns random values when the software tries to read input. From what I understand, the emulated device doesn’t support parallel tasks where one task writes and another reads. Each time I attempt to read, the virtual device behaves like a "null" device, accepting any value without connecting it in any way to what the SDK can read from the input.

Is there any way to set up LabVIEW or another NI tool to simulate digital input so that the software can reliably read it without needing a physical device connected?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

[santo_13]

As you realized, NI provides you a way to "simulate" NI DAQ but not emulate it and there is no easy way to emulate the hardware the way you get the signals in your application, you need to implement the emulated hardware part of your application so it allows you to emulate your "business data" to test your "business logic" and make the switch to actual hardware.