Chapter 1
Introduction
©
National Instruments Corporation
1-3
•
Measure
•
NI-DAQ for PC Compatibles
•
VirtualBench
❑
Your computer equipped with one of the following:
•
PCI bus for a PCI device
•
PXI or CompactPCI chassis and controller for a PXI device
Note
Read Chapter 2,
Installation and Configuration
, before installing your device.
Always install your software before installing your device.
Unpacking
Your device is shipped in an antistatic package to prevent electrostatic
damage to the device. Electrostatic discharge can damage several
components on the device. To avoid such damage in handling the device,
take the following precautions:
•
Ground yourself via a grounding strap or by holding a grounded object.
•
Touch the antistatic package to a metal part of your computer chassis
before removing the device from the package.
•
Remove the device from the package and inspect the device for
loose components or any other sign of damage. Notify National
Instruments if the device appears damaged in any way. Do not install
a damaged device into your computer.
•
Never touch the exposed pins of connectors.
Software Programming Choices
You have several options to choose from when programming your National
Instruments DAQ and SCXI hardware. You can use National Instruments
application software, NI-DAQ, or register-level programming.
National Instruments Application Software
ComponentWorks contains tools for data acquisition and instrument
control built on NI-DAQ driver software. ComponentWorks provides
a higher-level programming interface for building virtual instruments
through standard OLE controls and DLLs. With ComponentWorks, you
can use all of the configuration tools, resource management utilities, and
interactive control utilities included with NI-DAQ.