Daqmx 50413 Error & counter problems

[bftm]

Hi we've recently install our PCI-6229 card on a new computer running Windows 7 and have upgraded to LabView 2009 from 8.6. Our previously  functional vi for gated photon counting now returns a NaN rather than counts and occasionally displays an error message: "Error -50413 occurred at DAQmx Read (Counter 1D DBL 1Chan NSamp).vi:1" which is first displayed inside integrated_data_taker6229_v2.vi and propagates to integrated_gate_mover6229_v2.vi.

Other than moving to a new computer and updating the software, everything has remained the same (ie channel assignments). Has anyone else experienced difficulties with their vi's after a software upgrade or moving to new hardware.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

bftm

[bftm]

We realized that the NaN on the counter output was a result of the indicator not being wired correctly in the vi. Attached is the new vi's with the correct wiring.

We've determined that the counter is working correctly by simultaneous monitoring the vi and an external photon counter; both agree with one another.

However, occasionally the error I listed before is still occurring ("Error -50413") when the vi is run continuously. Additionally the dialog lists the possible reason for the error as "NI Platform Services:  A transfer was aborted because of a hardware error on the bus on which the transfer was occurring."

This vi ran previously on different hardware and software without the error occurring. As the vi is setup we are counting 5000 samples per channel (determined by an external 5kHZ TTL) with implicit timing to determine the number of photons striking our PMT per second. The counter is then counting to generate an array of size 5000. The result we need is the sum of of this array; that is the total number of counts after 5000 samples. If there is another way to configure the vi to produce this result that would work as well. 

Thanks!

[Kyle_A. · Accepted solution]

Hello,

From the looks of your error, there is a physical error occuring on the board that is separate from your software.  Looking for information on my side, there are a few things to try that have been known to solve the issue. 

Do you have another PCI-6229 card?  If you do, try swapping out cards to see if there is any different result.  Sometimes this error occurs when the PCI card is not seated in it's slot properly, so try taking the card out and cleaning the contacts, then placing the card back in the system in a different PCI slot. 

If you have another PC system, try installing the card and associated software in it and see if the error still persists.  Most of the time, the issue is PC specific, and switching out the problem PC with a different PC solves the issue.  Since you have just recently changed PC's, I am inclined to say there may be an issue with the PCI bus on that PC, or the way the card fits into that bus is not exactly correct.

If all else fails, a return for repair can be done on the card.

[bftm]

Thanks for your response! We have two PCI-6229 cards in our system and moving the photon counting over to the other card solved the problem. After determining that one card was fine while the other produced recurring errors we unseated the cards and reinstalled them into the PCI slots. I should mention that we are using a computer with a riser card and it is on this that the PCI cards are seated. However, after reinstalling the PCI and riser cards the hardware error is no longer occurring so it certainly must have been a result of a bad connection between the PCI card and the bus.

Thanks for your help!