National Instruments NI PCI-8254R Introduction

Introduction

The National Instruments PCI-8254R is an IEEE 1394a interface device for

PCI with reconfigurable I/O (RIO). The NI 8254R is OHCI compliant and

should be used with IEEE 1394a devices that run natively in

Windows 2000/XP.

The NI 8254R device ships with documentation and NI Vision Acquisition

Software, which contains all of the drivers in the NI Vision product line.

With NI Vision Acquisition Software, you can quickly and easily start your

applications without having to program the device at the register level.

The NI 8254R includes TTL inputs and outputs for triggering, and isolated

inputs and outputs for connecting to external devices, such as lighting

controllers, proximity sensors, and quadrature encoders.

Behind the digital I/O of the NI 8254R is an FPGA which has been

preconfigured with the functionality required for most common machine

vision tasks. However, if the factory configured functionality does not

fulfill your requirements, the FPGA is user configurable with the

LabVIEW FPGA Module. The NI 8254R provides a convenient 44-pin

D-SUB connector on its front panel to access its digital I/O.

For detailed specifications of the NI 8254R, refer to the Specifications

section of NI PCI-8254R Quick Start Guide.

Programming the NI 8254R requires two drivers to control the hardware:

NI-IMAQdx and NI-IMAQ I/O. Both drivers are included with NI Vision

Acquisition Software 8.2.1 or later.

NI-IMAQdx has an extensive library of functions you can call from the

application development environment (ADE) and handles many of the

complex issues between the computer and the image acquisition device,

such as programming interrupts and camera control. NI-IMAQ I/O

provides functions you can call from the ADE and controls the I/O

functionality for the NI 8254R.