PCI(e) cards#

Most rigs use the NI PCI-6251 (single breakout box) data acquisition card. This has the older PCI slot (long gold strip) and will not fit into many modern computers. However, there are NI PCIe-6321 cards, which is essentially the same card but uses a PCIe slot (two short gold strips) rather than the rapidly disappearing legacy PCI slot.

If you are ordering a new card however then you are recommended to use NI PCIe-6351. Its specs can be found here.

For the new G4 virtual reality environments, a pricier PCIe-7842 is required. Its specs can be found here. At time of writing, however, it is not supported by the MATLAB Image Aquisition Toolbox.

Connecting to break-out boards#

Your PCI card should connect to, and power, a BNC-2090(A) breakout board via a 68-pin national instruments cable. The silver end connects to the card, and the blue end, to the breakout board. When connected to an operating computer, the green light on the board should turn on. The PCIe-7842 card does not appear to be compatible with BNC-2090(A) breakout boards.

Take care when using a card with two or more connectors, the channels are fixed wrt the slot you are plugging into.

Drivers#

The latest version of the driver software known to work with MATLAB is NI-DAQmx 9.9: http://www.ni.com/download/ni-daqmx-9.9/4707/en/