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Installation and Configuration Chapter 2
PC-OPDIO-16 User Manual 2-6 © National Instruments Corporation
When the configuration utility finds a new switchless device in your computer, it assigns the first
available device number to the new device. The utility also assigns default resources such as I/O
address. When you remove the device from your computer, the utility deallocates these resources
and the device number will contain an “empty device.”
Note: You must run the DAQ configuration utility after you install or remove any National
Instruments switchless devices such as the PC-OPDIO-16.
If you have plug and play software in your system, the behavior of the DAQ configuration utility
may change significantly. If the plug and play software in your system has its own separate
configuration utility, you must use the system configuration utility to configure all National
Instruments devices in your system. Subsequently, you must run the DAQ configuration utility
in order to assign NI-DAQ device numbers to any new devices. If you do not run the DAQ
configuration utility in this case, you will be unable to assign the base address for your
PC-OPDIO-16. The configuration utility that comes with your plug and play software is
responsible for assigning system resources to your National Instruments device. You will not be
able to change the I/O base address using WDAQCONF if you are using other Plug and Play
software to configure your PC-OPDIO-16.
Examples of plug and play software are a Plug and Play BIOS or the Intel Plug and Play Kit,
which includes the Intel Configuration Manager with its own configuration utility.
WDAQCONF performs a full set of tests before saving the device configuration to ensure the
device will operate correctly. If the device fails any of the tests, WDAQCONF reports the errors
and does not save the configuration.
DAQCONF does not perfom any such tests. The only way to find out if the configuration is
100 percent successful in DOS is to run a few NI-DAQ calls on the device.
Using DAQCONF
DAQCONF is a DOS-based application that you can use to view and configure your DAQ devices
for NI-DAQ to use. You need to run DAQCONF if you are using NI-DAQ in DOS. If you are
using NI-DAQ in Windows or LabWindows/CVI, you should skip to the Using WDAQCONF
section later in this chapter.
Locate DAQCONF in the same directory you installed NI-DAQ using the installation program.
Run the configuration utility by typing DAQCONF at the DOS prompt.
NI-DAQ Configuration File
The NI-DAQ configuration file holds all configuration information for your DAQ hardware.
The NI-DAQ configuration file in DOS is named ATBRDS.CFG. The first time you run
DAQCONF, it will create ATBRDS.CFG in your root directory. If you wish to create the
configuration file in a different directory, provide a path name when you run DAQCONF as in the
following example:
DAQCONF\PROJ_X