DAQFLex and Universal Library Comparison

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DAQFLex and Universal Library Comparison

DAQFLex and Universal Library (UL) are Application Programming Interfaces (API) for interfacing with Measurement Computing Corporation DAQ boards. While these APIs both interface with MCC DAQ boards, they are designed for different use cases and are very different in nature.

Universal Library, which supports all MCC DAQ products, is intended for end-users who desire a wide breadth of product availability and intend to program on MS Windows® operating systems. It is a function-based programming interface (see Table 2).

DAQFlex, which only supports newer MCC USB DAQ products, is intended for OEM users who desire a small driver footprint, need to run programs on a variety of operating systems, or prefer to configure the system devices without a separate application. DAQFlex is a message-based (command-based) programming interface (see Table 2).

Please refer to Table 1 below for API differences.

Table 1 – Feature Comparison

FEATURE	DAQFlex	Universal Library
OS Support	Windows®, Linux®, Mac®	Windows Only
32-bit and 64-bit OS Support	Yes	Yes
Open Source	Yes	No
Hardware Support	Limited	All MCC DAQ Devices
Thread Safe	Yes	No
Driver Footprint	4 MB	28.5 MB
DAQ Feature Support	Full	Full
Single-Point Acquisition Speed	Good	Better
Digital I/O Speed	Good	Better
Development Framework	Mono/.net	Windows
Language Support	VisualBasic (VB), C#, C++/CLI*	VB, C++, C#, NI LabVIEW (ULx)
Separate Configuration Utility Needed	No	Yes (InstaCal)
Examples	Yes	Yes
Free Technical Support	Yes	Yes

* C++/CLI supported in Windows only

Table 2 – Code Examples

FEATURE	DAQFlex	Universal Library
Single-Point AI	Device.SendMessage(“AI{0}:RANGE=BIP5V”) Value = Device.SendMessage(“?AI{0}:VALUE”)	cbAIn(BdNum, Ch, BIP5V, &Value)
Multiple-Point AI	Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:RANGE=BIP5V”) Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:LOWCHAN=0”) Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:HIGHCHAN=3”) Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:SAMPLES=1000”) Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:RATE=100”) Device.SendMessage(“AISCAN:START”) Data = Device.ReadScanData(1000, 0)	Handle = cbWinBuffAlloc(400) cbAInScan(BdNum, LowCh, HighCh, Samples, &Rate, BIP5V, Handle, Options) CurCount = 0 CurIndex = 0 While (CurCount < Samples) { cbGetStatus(BdNum, &Status, &CurCount, &CurIndex, AIFUNCTION) } cbWinBuffToArray(BdNum, Handle, &Data, FirstPoint, Samples)
Single-Point DI	Device.SendMessage(“DIO{0}:DIR=IN”) Value = Device.SendMessage(“?DIO{0}:VALUE”)	cbDConfigPort(BdNum, PortNum, Direction) cbDIn(BdNum, PortNum, &Value)