Acquire, Record, and Process Data in NI DAQExpress

1. Configure Hardware and Acquire Data

Immediately Access Hardware 

When you open DAQExpress, you are presented with three tiles: Projects, Hardware, and Learning. The Hardware tile is the fastest way to start interacting with your hardware. You can instantly access data from your devices, quickly set up your measurement system, and configure settings across multiple channels. The Projects tile lets you create projects to save your measurement configurations or create a custom application. The Learning tile gives you access to tutorials and examples to help you get started faster.

Click the Hardware tile to view all the data acquisition devices currently connected to your PC. DAQExpress automatically detects any supported NI DAQ hardware device you connect to your computer. Select your device to view the types of measurements supported by your DAQ hardware.  For example, if you are using a USB DAQ device with analog input, counter input, digital input, and digital output channels, then those measurements will be available for you to use with that device.

If you don’t have an NI DAQ device connected to your computer, or if your hardware device doesn’t support a measurement, you can use measurements in demo mode with simulated data by going to the Projects tab and selecting Measurement Panels.

Configure and Verify Measurement Settings 

After you have a measurement panel open, you can specify your measurement settings using the configuration pane on the right-hand side of the screen. You can name channels and specify the sensor type and settings, the channel on your device you want to use, and the plot color for that channel. You can quickly add more channels to your measurement by clicking the Add button below the graph.

To configure settings that are common across multiple channels, like the sampling rate or a trigger to start your acquisition, select the Task tab. Each measurement panel must share the same sampling rate and trigger. To trigger different channels based on different sources, or acquire channels at different rates, you need to create a new measurement panel for those channels. You can do that by clicking the plus button as shown below.

To edit multiple channels at once, switch the Tile View option to the Table View to batch edit channels.

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2. Easily Record Data to Disk 

Once you have a measurement panel open, you will begin acquiring data immediately. You can record this data to disk by selecting the Record button. There are three options:

1. Record - Keeps saving data until you choose to stop the recording
2. Record (Timed) —Records data for a specified period
3. Capture Frame—Saves the data shown on your graph at that moment in time

When the data has been recorded, it is saved in the data area on the left of the screen.

Double-click any data item you’ve recorded to view and explore it. This opens the data in a new tab. Here, you can zoom in on parts of your data or analyze data sets by clicking the More analysis panels… button.

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3. Analyzing Acquired Data with Analysis Panels

Analysis panels let you apply filters, time domain transfers, and other analysis routines to your data. You can adjust settings and see how your output data is affected. After you’ve set up your analysis, you can then capture the analyzed data to use later. The full list of available analysis functions is below: 

Note: All the functions above can be run interactively with Analysis Panels. All the functions except FFT Spectrum and Tone Measurements can also be programmed in DAQExpress. If programmatic FFT Spectrum or Tone Measurement analysis is needed, consider upgrading to LabVIEW NXG. 

See Interactive and Programmatic Analysis in NI DAQ Express to learn more about different analysis options.