ULx for NI LabVIEW™
NI LabVIEW Driver for MCC DAQ ProductsFeatures• Comprehensive library of VIs
and example programs• Seamless operation with most
MCC hardware products• High-level VIs improve ease ofuse and speed development• Polymorphic VIs reduce thenumber of VIs required• Support for counter/timers,quadrature encoders, digitaltriggering, and synchronous
DAQ operation• NI LabVIEW waveform data
type compatibility• Compatible with NI LabVIEW
Version 2015 and later

Supported Operating Systems• Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista®/
XP 32/64-bit

ULx VI Palette
Users select VIs from the ULx for NILabVIEW palette within LabVIEW.

ULx for NI LabVIEW front panel (top) and block diagram (bottom)

Overview
The ULx for NI LabVIEW is a library of virtual instruments (VIs) used with Measurement
Computing Corporation (MCC) devices to develop acquisition and control applications
in National Instruments LabVIEW.
The ULx library contains high level task objects. Each task object owns a low level
DAQ object that controls data acquisition for a specific device sub function such as
analog input, analog output, digital input, digital output, etc. The ULx VIs interface
with the MCC Universal Library (UL) software via transparent function calls.

The ULx palette includes polymorphic
VIs, which adapt to different data types.
A polymorphic VI is a collection of VIs
called instances. Each VI instance in thecollection has similar input and output
terminals, but accept or return different
data types, such as waveforms, arrays,and scalar values.

ULx for NI LabVIEW is included with the free MCC DAQ Software bundle (CD/download).

High-Level VIs

Intelligent Error HandlingHigh-level VIs merge operations intosingle, easier-to-use VIs that improveapplication development compared toprevious drivers.

ULx for NI LabVIEW provides error descriptions and recommendations on how toresolve them, speeding development time.

The VIs internally manage DAQ device
variations such as data rate, input ranges,
and data packet sizes, and can easily be
migrated from one DAQ device to another.

Measurement Computing

Auto Detection of Supported
UL Functions
ULx for NI LabVIEW automatically detects
supported UL functions for each device,significantly reducing programming
errors and reducing the need to refer toUL documentation.

(508) 946-5100

1ULx for NI LabVIEW VI palette

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ULx for NI LabVIEW™
NI LabVIEW Driver for MCC DAQ Products
Performing Data Acquisition Tasks

Counter Input and Timer Output

Users create a separate task to perform each data acquisition
operation, such as analog input, digital output, and so on. Atask can contain one or more virtual channels with timing,triggering, and other properties. Each task is associated withone hardware device.

The ULx for NI LabVIEW library supports several types of counter
input and timer output channels for different types of countermeasurements and generations. Most counters have three I/Olines: gate, input (clock), and output.
•A gate input controls when counting starts or stops.

All channels in a task must be of the same I/O type, such asanalog input or counter output. A task can include channels ofdifferent measurement types, such as an analog input temperature channel and an analog input voltage channel.

•An input signal is the timebase for a measurement or thesignal to count. A count register – the number of bits inthe counter – increments or decrements the number ofedges to count.

Some MCC hardware devices support composite (synchronous)
tasks, which can include combinations of any supported input
operations OR any supported output operations, but cannot
include input and output operations in one task.

•An output signal can output a single pulse or a pulse train(series of pulses).

All counter types are supported, including encoders. Some
MCC hardware devices have timer output channels which areindependent of the counter channels.

Synchronous DAQ Operation
The ULx for NI LabVIEW library supports synchronous input
or output on MCC hardware that can synchronously acquire
analog, digital, temperature, and counter input using the same
hardware pacer.

Digital Pattern Triggering
The ULx for NI LabVIEW library supports digital pattern triggering. Users can configure a task to start an acquisition when adigital pattern is matched. The pattern to detect and the trigger
sensitivity – the way in which the trigger event is detected – areuser-configurable.

ULx also supports synchronous output on MCC hardware thatcan synchronously generate analog and digital output using thesame hardware pacer.

Example Programs
ULx for NI LabVIEW includes example programs that demonstrate how to perform data acquisition tasks in LabVIEW. Each
program can be modified to suit specific application needs.

Requirements
ULx composite input and output VIs support synchronous DAQ
operationHardware•Some examples of MCC hardware that support synchronous
tasks are the USB-CTR Series, USB-2500 Series, USB-1602HSSeries, USB-1604HS Series, and USB-1616HS Series.

Most Measurement Computing Bluetooth, Ethernet/WEB,
USB, PCI/PCIe, and Wireless devices are supported

Software•Waveform Data TypeNI LabVIEW 2015 and later

The ULx for NI LabVIEW library supports the use of the LabVIEW
waveform data type to represent the analog and digital waveforms
users can acquire or generate. ULx uses the dt component ofthe waveform input – the time in seconds between samples – todetermine the sample clock rate.

Measurement Computing
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April 2017. Rev 4© Measurement Computing Corporation