National Instruments USB-6351 Multifunction I/O Device

National Instruments' USB-6351 (Part Number: 781440-01) is a multipurpose data acquisition (DAQ) tool made to help with a variety of industrial automation applications. It integrates analog input/output, digital input/output, and four 32-bit counters/timers tailored for functions such as pulse-width modulation (PWM), encoder measurements, frequency monitoring, and event counting.

With independent analog and digital timing engines, the USB-6351 offers comprehensive timing features thanks to its NI-STC3 timing and synchronization technology. Retriggerable measurement activities are supported by this technology, which improves synchronization and precision for a variety of applications.

Users can create unique measurement systems with the USB-6351 by using graphical programming software for data logging. For applications such as factory monitoring, hardware validation, and scientific experimentation, this makes data display, analysis, and logging to disk easy to understand.

The USB-6351 control module allows users to create customized control systems by connecting sensors and actuators. Sensor measurements, setpoint comparisons, and output signal updates are all made simple for users by the LabVIEW software and the NI-DAQmx driver software. Apps needing precise control will find the device excellent because of its low-latency PCI Express bus, which improves single-point I/O performance.

For test automation, the USB-6351 provides analog inputs/outputs, hardware-timed digital I/O, and counter/timers on a single device, offering a cost-effective solution for device characterization and test automation. The NI-DAQmx software enables customers to increase functionality and scalability by synchronizing acquisition or generation across several subsystems.

Maximum sample rates for single-channel and multichannel operation of the USB-6351 are 1.25 MS/s and 1.00 MS/s, respectively, for analog input, which can accommodate 8 differential or 16 single-ended channels with 16-bit resolution. With overvoltage protection for every analog input channel, the device has multiple input ranges to choose from.

The maximum update rate for a single channel in analog output is 2.86 MS/s, and for two channels, it is 2.00 MS/s. Both channels have 16-bit resolution. There are 24 channels in total with individual direction control and input voltage protection in digital I/O/PFI.