The picture above shows the National Instruments (NI) myDAQ, a low-cost (approx. $200) data acquisition (DAQ) device that is a portable, fully USB-powered, set of instruments for experimentation with electronic circuits. The NI myDAQ has two analog inputs and outputs with 16 bit resolution and 200 kS/s sampling rate, 8 digital I/O lines, a digital multimeter to measure voltage (ac and dc), current (ac and dc), and resistance, and three power supplies (+5 V, -15 V, +15 V, max. 500 mW). Pictures of the hardware inside the NI myDAQ are shown below (click to enlarge). For more details, see the NI myDAQ User Guide or visit the NI myDAQ website.
NI ELVISmx is the driver software that supports the NI Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite II (NI ELVIS II). A DVD with this software comes together with the NI myDAQ. To download the latest version of NI ELVISmx go to http://www.ni.com/mydaq/support.htm, select "Set up your NI myDAQ", click on "Software Installation", and then select NI ELVISmx Software 4.3 - NI myDAQ hardware driver (1374 MB).
To install the software (currently only available for Windows), run "setup.exe" from the DVD or the downloaded "NIELVIS430.exe" file. Note: To use the NI myDAQ as a standalone device you only need to install NI ELVISmx (LabVIEW and Multisim are not needed). Installation of NI ELVISmx takes about 30 minutes and requires 750-850 MB of hard disk space. The installation summary for NI ELVISmx 4.2.2 is shown below.
©2001-2011, P. Mathys. Last revised: 10-19-11, PM.