Superlab shows error in both 4.5 and 5 with NI USB DAQ

cnsla · January 22, 2015, 6:10am

I’m running Superlab 5.0.2 in OS X 10.9 Mavericks, MBP 2012 (non-retina).
Installed NI-DAQ-MX base 3.6.0.

Weird response shows up when I test NI USB-6501 with Superlab.
It recognizes the device, but cannot ‘test’ it. when I press “test now”.

In
“Digital Output”-“Setup”.
I clicked “Autodetect”, and the Superlab successfully detected the device
(Dev1 -USB0::0x3923::0x718A::016A2FEA::RAW)

However, when I close the setup menu and press “test”, the superlab freeze for seconds, and errors like below are shown.

“SuperLab couldn’t find a National Instruments device connected to computer”
22:55:36: In ResetDevice, National Instruments drivers gave an error message: Device identifier is invalid.
22:55:41: SuperLab found the selected device, “NI USB-6501,” through NI-VISA, but could not access it through NI-DAQmx Base. Please make sure the USB device is still connected and is visible in lsdaq.
22:55:41: SuperLab couldn’t find a National Instruments device connected to this computer.

I opened I/O trace and It shows the log below during “autodetact”

viOpenDefaultRM (0x1734F460)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:36.674 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
> 2. viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “PXI?*INSTR”, 0x00000000, 0, “”)
> Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
> Start Time: 23:01:36.674 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
> Status: 0xBFFF0011 (VI_ERROR_RSRC_NFOUND)
viClose (0x00000000)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:36.674 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0x3FFF0082 (VI_WARN_NULL_OBJECT)
> 4. viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “visa://localhost::RTRTX::0/?*”, 0x00000000, 0, “”)
> Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
> Start Time: 23:01:36.674 Call Duration 00:00:00.002
> Status: 0xBFFF00A7 (VI_ERROR_MACHINE_NAVAIL)
viClose (0x00000000)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:36.676 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0x3FFF0082 (VI_WARN_NULL_OBJECT)
viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “USB?::0x3923::?::RAW”, 0x0F17A700, 1, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:36.676 Call Duration 00:00:05.017
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viOpen (0x1734F460, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”, 4, 10, 0x169F6600)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.693 Call Duration 00:00:00.006
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viGetAttribute (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x169F6600), MODEL_NAME, “NI USB-6501”)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.699 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x169F6600))
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.699 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viOpen (0x1734F460, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”, 0, 0, 0x169F6600)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.699 Call Duration 00:00:00.005
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viGetAttribute (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x169F6600), MODEL_CODE, 29066)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.704 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x169F6600))
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.704 Call Duration 00:00:00.001
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (0x0F17A700)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (0x1734F460)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viOpenDefaultRM (0x1734F460)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
> 16. viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “PXI?*INSTR”, 0x00000000, 0, “”)
> Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
> Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
> Status: 0xBFFF0011 (VI_ERROR_RSRC_NFOUND)
viClose (0x00000000)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0x3FFF0082 (VI_WARN_NULL_OBJECT)
> 18. viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “visa://localhost::RTRTX::0/?*”, 0x00000000, 0, “”)
> Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
> Start Time: 23:01:41.705 Call Duration 00:00:00.002
> Status: 0xBFFF00A7 (VI_ERROR_MACHINE_NAVAIL)
viClose (0x00000000)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.707 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0x3FFF0082 (VI_WARN_NULL_OBJECT)
viFindRsrc (0x1734F460, “USB?::0x3923::?::RAW”, 0x0F45A980, 1, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:41.707 Call Duration 00:00:05.017
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viOpen (0x1734F460, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”, 4, 10, 0x049E1200)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.724 Call Duration 00:00:00.006
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viGetAttribute (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x049E1200), MODEL_NAME, “NI USB-6501”)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.730 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x049E1200))
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.730 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viOpen (0x1734F460, “USB0::0x3923::0…::016A2FEA::RAW”, 0, 0, 0x0336A000)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.730 Call Duration 00:00:00.006
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viGetAttribute (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x0336A000), MODEL_CODE, 29066)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.736 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (USB0::0x3923::0x718A::01… (0x0336A000))
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.736 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (0x0F45A980)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.736 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)
viClose (0x1734F460)
Process ID: 0x0000043D Thread ID: 0xA13511A8
Start Time: 23:01:46.736 Call Duration 00:00:00.000
Status: 0 (VI_SUCCESS)

When I click ‘test now’ The logs attached in txt file added.

error_log.txt (5.47 KB)

Kelly · January 26, 2015, 4:03pm

Hi cnsla.

Thank you for this incredibly thorough and well-organized problem report.

I was able to reproduce the problem in my own lab, and I was then able to find a solution.

Here are the steps to solving this:

[LIST=1]

Close SuperLab

Locate the installation folder for National Ins.

Launch "[B]lsdaq.app[/B]"

Follow hints from [B]lsdaq[/B] to update USB-6501 firmware.

Re-open SuperLab.

Once again try "Autodetect" and "Test Now" in SuperLab. [/LIST]

By the time you get to “Test Now” again in the final step, things should work.

Beware: the first successful “Test Now” button-click will cause SuperLab to freeze for a second or two. There is some first-time-only NIDAQ initialization taking place during that pause. After the initial delay, you should be able to detect the pulse via the USB-6501 device, and there should be no error popups from SuperLab.

To add greater clarity and depth to the above-listed steps, here is a visual walkthrough:

http://screencast.com/t/ZU5t81lL
(walkthrough is 2 min, 50 sec in length. you can pause it at any time.)

The video walk-through was recorded on Mac OS X 10.6, but I also tested the steps on 10.9 and I can personally verify that this works on both Mac versions.

Final Note: Once the firmware is in a successful state, be very careful about plugging your USB-6501 device into any Microsoft Windows computer! If any MS Windows NIDAQ software (including SuperLab for Windows) establishes a communication channel with the device, then Windows-only firmware can get flashed onto the device, ruining things for you on Mac OS X again. (Of course, if this ever happens, you simply perform the six-step solution above all over again.)