NI Vision Driver and Vision Acquisition Device Compatibility

Overview

NI Vision Acquisition Software (VAS) automatically installs three driver packages for use with different image acquisition devices: NI-IMAQ, NI-IMAQdx and NI-IMAQ I/O. Each driver includes a set of LabVIEW VIs that can be used for high-level control and VAS includes libraries for programming in C, C++, C#, Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET.

Image Acquisition Device and Vision Driver Compatibility

NI-IMAQ 

The NI-IMAQ driver software supports acquiring from and controlling Camera Link cameras when using NI Camera Link frame grabber devices. Currently orderable devices may be found here. Older NI Camera Link frame grabber devices are still supported in NI-IMAQ, however in later versions of VAS, Camera Link Frame Grabbers can also use IMAQdx.

NI-IMAQdx 

The NI-IMAQdx driver software is needed to use third-party image acquisition devices which use the following buses and standards: 

  • Gigabit Ethernet Cameras Supporting GigE Vision
  • USB 2.0 Cameras Supporting Microsoft DirectShow
  • USB 3.0 Cameras Supporting USB3 Vision

NI-IMAQ I/O

The NI-IMAQ I/O driver software is a smaller driver API used exclusively to program the NI Vision RIO image acquisition devices that include a user-accessible FPGA:

  • NI PCIe-1477 Camera Link Reconfigurable Frame Grabber
  • NI-1483 FlexRIO Adapter Module
  • NI Industrial Controllers and Compact Vision Systems (no longer sold)
  • NI GigE Frame Grabbers with onboard FPGA

Note: The NI Vision RIO devices require both the NI-IMAQ and NI-IMAQ I/O drivers. 

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