FAQs

Category:  DAQ Cards (ISA/PCI)

Hardware

Q. Why do I get uncertain or incorrect digital input data when digital input channels are unconnected?
A: Please refer to floating for digital inputs_eng.pdf document.
Q. How to clean the golden fingers of the PCI/ISA/PEX card?
A: The golden fingers can be oxidized and dusts residue after months or years that may cause the host PC cannot find the PCI/ISA/PEX cards. Please refer to the FAQ07_English.pdf document.
Q. Does VXC series cards support customized baud rate?
A:  Yes, please refer to the VXC_Customized_Baudrate_English.pdf document.
Q. What’s the difference between an ADC conversion rate and a sampling rate?
A: ADC conversion rate is the specification of ADC chip that defines its maximum conversion speed, while the sampling rate is limited by the ADC, multiplexer, amplifier and software performance with settings in a DAQ system. Usually, the sampling rate is less than or equal to the ADC conversion rate.
Q. What is the DIO response time of PIO-DIO series cards?
A: It is about 0.77 us (1.3 MHz max.), please refer to the test report PIO_Response_Time.pdf.
Q. How to make a loop-back test on a RS-485 port of VXC Card?
A: No, you cannot make a loop-back test on one RS-485 port.

In RS-232, the TX signal is used for output while the RX signal is used for input. Users can short the TX and RX signals to make a loop-back test.
 
In RS-485, it is a differential signal through the Data+ and Data- wires. When the difference in voltage between Data+ and Data-, Vab, is great than 200mV, the RS-485 receiver then generates logic "1". When the Vab is less than -200mV, the RS-485 receiver then generates logic "0".

Thus, if user shorts the Data+ and Data- wires together, the Vab is then becomes 0V and the RS-485 receiver generates nothing. Actually, the RS-485 bus doesn’t work when the Data+ and Data- wires are shorted.

An alternate method is using two RS-485 ports, which shorts the two Data+ signals of ports, and shorts the two Data- signals of ports.  Users can then send and receive data from one to another port for testing.

Q. What is the settling time of PIO-DA16/8/4?
Q. How to identify which PCI board is board_0 or board_1?
A: Please refer to the "PciCardNo.jpg" picture.
     In normal PC, the PCI card in the slot closest to the CPU will be the first one, and so on.  
 http://www.icpdas.com/faq/card/hardware/eeh001_pcicardno.jpg
   Please note:

  1. Driver always search the PCI card one by one from the PCI slot-0.
  2. Driver search the PCI cards via the PCI bus controller (offset 0xCFC and 0xCF8 registers).
  3. Driver identifies the PCI card by Vendor-ID, Device-ID, SubVendor-ID and SubDevice-ID.
  4. The base-address of every PCI card maybe changed while the system is adding/removing PCI card(s).
  5. Some BIOS supports "OS PnP" feature. If the driver has problem to work with the PCI card(s), please try todisable the "OS PnP" setting and then try again.

Software

Q. Why does the timer counter read an incorrect value after selecting the mode, or why is there no timer counter activity?
A: Please refer to TMC12A Initialization_eng.pdf document.
Q. How to drive a DAQ card with LabWindows/CVI?
Q. How to use Card ID?
A: Please refer to How_to_use_CardID_eng.pdf
Q. How to use UniDAQ DLL in a MATLAB environment?
A: Please refer to Matlab_for_IOCARD_eng.pdf
Q. How to use UniDAQ DLL in a MATLAB environment?
A: Please refer to Matlab_for_IOCARD_eng.pdf
Q. How to install I/O Card driver in 32-bit Windows 7?
Q. How to modify the software of the PCI-P16R16 that compatible with software of the PISO-P16R16U?
Q. How to use DAQ Card in Windows XP Embedded?
Q. How to use the ICP DAS I/O card DLL in VC++.NET2005?
A: Please refer to the please refer to the using_dll_ in_vc++.net_2005_eng.pdf document.
Q. How to use the ICP DAS I/O card DLL in VB.NET?
A: Please refer to the Using_DLL_in_VB.NET_2005_eng.pdf document.
Q. How to use the ICP DAS I/O card DLL in C#?
A: Please refer to the Using_DLL_in_CShape.NET_2005_eng.pdf document.
Q. How to use the ICP DAS I/O card DLL in VB.NET2003?
Q. How to use the ICP DAS I/O card DLL in C# 2003?
Q. How to use OCX (ActiveX Control) in Visual C++ .net 2003?
Q. How to use two or more cards in the same time without calling ActiveBoard() function again and again?
A: You can record the Base-Address of all cards first, and then calling I/O functions directly without ActiveBoard()function  
 calls anymore. For example, to use ISO-P64 under Windows 2000:  
 
 // Get address first
 1. ISO_ActiveBoard(0)
 2. ISO_GetConfigAddress(&wBase0, &BoardNo)
 3. ISO_ActiveBoard(1)
 4. ISO_GetConfigAddress(&wBase1,&BoardNo)
 // I/O directly
 5. ISO_InputByte(wBase0+n) 
 6. ISO_InputByte(wBase1+n)
Q. The PIO-PISO.exe program identifies PCI cards correctly, but Diag.exe and demo programs failed and show the error message "Card initialize error" or "No xxx card in this system". What's the problem?
A: The PIO_PISO.EXE directly gets information of devices from PCI bus controller, so it should be always no problem to list PCI cards.

But it's not enough to support all features [For example: ISR (Interrupt Service Routine) ...] of every devices. Thus, we provide different drivers to support I/O cards, and users have to install these drivers correctly to make sure devices can work with full features.

As you can see that they work totally different. That's why the PIO_PISO.exe and Diag.exe / demo programs may have the different result.

Most of the problems may be caused by:
1. PCI card isn't plugged well in the slot, or the slot doesn't work!
2. User doesn't finish the PnP (Plug & Play) operation correctly!
3. The related driver isn't installed yet!
4. System resource sharing/conflict problems.

 

If you still got problems, please try ...
1. Put the card in another slot to make sure the slot is good or bad.
2. Check and change the BIOS setting about IRQ number and PnP.
3. Disable the "OS PNP" feature in BIOS setting.
4. Remove other cards that do not necessary in the test.
    (For example: Sound Card, Network card ... and SCSI card. )
5. Contact us.

 
Note 1: Under Windows 9X/2K/XP, users have to finish the PnP (Plug&Play) operation to let Windows to allocate resources for these PCI cards.
            These cards can then works correctly. Please refer to "Inf\PnPInstall.pdf" to finish the PnP operation.
 
Note 2: Please refer to "Manual\ResCheck.pdf” to check your system resource.

Note 3: While the card cannot be found in the system, the different OS will have the different behaves.
           A. Windows 9X/ME
               Loading driver OK, but failed in search card or the TotalBoards parameter returns 0.
           B. Windows NT/2K/XP
               Failed while loading drivers and returns Driver_Initialize_Error.

Note 4: Most of the NT driver doesn't works under Windows 2000. Please use the correct toolkit and drivers.

Q. Can I/O card drivers (for Windows) work with non-x86 CPU?
A: No. The drivers use x86 direct I/O commands to get the highest performance. It doesn't access through the HAL interface, so it works with x86 CPU only.
Q. The NT/2K/XP driver installation failed with USER account. What's the problem?
A: The System Administrator has to protect the PC from virus, security ... and unstability. Thus, it's not proper (and should not) to install any kind of drivers under USER account.
Please log on as Administrator before installing drivers.
ICP DAS USA,Inc.