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Thank you for using NI-SCOPE instrument driver for Windows 2000/NT 4.0/XP. This file contains important information about NI-SCOPE, and is organized into the following sections:
NI-SCOPE 2.8 supports the following hardware:
This section lists the minimum system requirements and the recommended system for using NI-SCOPE.
NI-SCOPE Version 2.8 installs the following files.
| Item | Default Installed Location |
|---|---|
| NI-SCOPE | Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE LabVIEW support | Program Files\National Instruments\<LabVIEW>\instr.lib\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE LabVIEW Examples | Program Files\National Instruments\<LabVIEW>\examples\instr\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE CVI support | Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE CVI Examples | Program Files\National Instruments\CVI\samples\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE C Examples | Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope\Examples\c |
| NI-SCOPE C++ Examples | Program Files\National Instruments\Measurement Studio\VC\Examples\niScope |
| NI-SCOPE VB Examples | Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope\Examples\VB |
| Scope SFP (Soft Front Panel) 2.2 | Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope |
| NI LabVIEW Run-Time Engine 7.1 | Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\LabVIEW Run-Time\7.1 |
| NI-DAQ 7.4 | Program Files\National Instruments\NI-DAQ |
| IVI Compliance Package 2.2 | Program Files\National Instruments\IVI |
| NI-VISA 3.2 | Program Files\National Instruments\Shared |
| Measurement & Automation Explorer 3.1.1 | Program Files\National Instruments\MAX |
| NI Hierarchical Waveform Storage 1.3 | Program Files\National Instruments\NI-HWS |
The following documents are installed in Program Files\IVI\Drivers\niScope\Documentation and are accessible from Start»Programs»National Instruments»NI-SCOPE»Documentation:
Note: A printed copy of the NI PXI-5922 Specifications document is shipped with the device.
This section provides information on installing NI-SCOPE and NI-DAQ and upgrading from previous versions of NI-SCOPE.
NI-SCOPE installs NI-DAQ if it is not already installed, or if the installed version of NI-DAQ is earlier than version 7.4. NI recommends uninstalling NI-DAQ if you have a version older than 7.4. NI-DAQ 7.4 support files will be installed if you have LabVIEW or LabWindows/CVI in your system. However, the only component that NI-SCOPE needs from NI-DAQ is the device driver.
Note: Service Pack 6 or greater is required for NI-DAQ 7.4 in Windows NT.
Upgrading from NI-SCOPE 1.0 and 1.1—NI-SCOPE 2.8 does not install over NI-SCOPE 1.0 or 1.1. You must uninstall these versions of NI-SCOPE before installing NI-SCOPE 2.8.
Upgrading from NI-SCOPE 1.5 and later—NI-SCOPE 2.8 automatically uninstalls any previous version that is greater or equal to 1.5. If you have modified any old examples, these will be overwritten by the new versions.
For Windows 2000/NT 4.0/XP, perform the following procedure to uninstall NI-SCOPE, NI-DAQ, and any additional NI software:
Do not attempt to uninstall by deleting files, which may be shared with other programs. The following additional software packages may have been installed as part of the NI-SCOPE 2.8 installation. Exercise care when removing these packages because they may be used by other NI products:
NI-SCOPE provides an intuitive, full-featured interface for programming your hardware. NI-SCOPE is IVI-Scope compliant, meaning that software written to the NI-SCOPE interface will be completely compatible with future products in the NI high-speed digitizer family.
NI-SCOPE ships with several examples for LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, Measurement Studio, MSVC, Visual C++, and Microsoft Visual Basic that will help you develop your software. These examples illustrate how to perform the most common operations with your hardware. To find the examples, go to Start»Programs»National Instruments»NI-SCOPE»Examples.
The Scope Soft Front Panel (SFP) is a software oscilloscope application for NI high-speed digitizers. It has the following features:
The Scope SFP demonstrates some of the capabilities of NI high-speed digitizers and enables you to start using your new digitizer immediately without the need to know a programming language. The Scope SFP is installed by default as a feature of the NI-SCOPE installation. To remove the Scope SFP use the Add/Remove Programs option.
The NI-SCOPE Express step that ships with NI-SCOPE 2.8 was designed for use with NI SignalExpress 1.1 or later. The NI-SCOPE Express step is compatible with NI SignalExpress 1.0 with the exception that software start triggers are not supported.
If you are using NI-TClk to synchronize non-identical devices (for example, an NI PXI-5122 with an NI PXI-5124), you will notice a change in behavior in the skew associated with synchronization when you upgrade to NI-SCOPE 2.7. The new behavior compensates for delay associated with the input path. This delay varies from device to device. Because the driver now handles this delay, synchronizing any SMC-based products should produce data that has a small constant skew over all sample rates.
Synchronization with different sampling rates is not supported for the NI PXI-5922 in NI-SCOPE 2.8.
Board revision 183612F-01 of the NI PCI-5102 and board revision 184603E-01 of the NI PXI-5102 must be used with NI-SCOPE 2.6.1 or later. Board revision 183442G-01 of the NI PCMCIA-5102 must be used with NI-SCOPE 2.8 or later. To verify the board revision number, remove the device from the computer or chassis and turn it to view the side. The revision number is labeled "ASSY" and is located near the serial number. If you have an earlier version NI-SCOPE installed, go to ni.com/idnet to download the latest version.
You can now read data as soon as it is acquired. However, on a single record acquisition, the fetch functions do not wait for the trigger holdoff to expire. If you configure a trigger holdoff on a single record acquisition, you must make sure the trigger holdoff period has expired before initiating another acquisition. Call niScope_AcquisitionStatus to find out when the entire acquisition, including trigger holdoff, has completed.
When you synchronize multiple NI 5911 digitizers in master-slave mode, the sample rate must be 100 MHz, 50 MHz, or 25 MHz/n, where n is any positive integer. The master-slave operation may also cause trigger jitter.
Call By Reference is a LabVIEW feature that allows the execution source for a VI to be dynamically determined at run time. The Call By Reference mechanism by design attempts to dynamically load and unload the code for a VI. This can cause problems with NI-SCOPE and other IVI-based drivers because state information can be lost when the driver DLL is unloaded. To avoid having the NI-SCOPE DLL unload after each Call By Reference VI call, statically place any NI-SCOPE VI, such as the niScope Initialize VI, on the block diagram inside a case structure wired to FALSE. This keeps the NI-SCOPE DLL loaded in between calls to the NI-SCOPE VIs without actually executing the code in the case structure.
NI-SCOPE 2.1.4 and previous versions installed a duplicate version of the NI-SCOPE C link library called niscope_32.lib. This duplicate version has been obsoleted and now only niscope.lib is installed. Programs linking against the duplicate name need to be changed to link against niscope.lib.
ViConstString, ViChar, and ViString are used as parameters for the NI-SCOPE functions. However, these types are invalid in Visual Basic. Visual Basic users should declare variables of type String.
The trigger type (NISCOPE_ATTR_TRIGGER_TYPE) for immediate triggering used to be returned as NISCOPE_VAL_EDGE (1). It is now returned as NISCOPE_VAL_IMMEDIATE_TRIGGER (6).