Programmatically create DXS file

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a way to programmatically create a setup file.

We have a database containing the specifications of more than 500 sensors which will be used during our test (database have informations like Name of measurement, type of sensor, scaling coefficients, frequency to be acquired, filter to be used, power, etc).

Those 500 sensors are actually acquired by a PXI from NI after being conditionned by a third party hardware.

For the future (middle of this year), we plan to acquire 128 sensors directly with DEWESoft hardware (SIRIUS and SBOX platforms).

Until now, we used a custom software which automatically handled the configuration files and wiring schematics according to the sensors included in the database.

What we want to do now, is to read the database like before and automatically create the setup file for each SBOX / SIRIUS with the corresponding hardware, scaling, names, etc...

We would create another database which includes the precise DEWESoft hardware we have and position. We can do this in C/C++, C#, VB, etc...

Is there a way to accomplish this with DCOM ?

I tried to find some help in the DCOM manual but it's very dense.

Thanks in advance for your help !

Hi,

I would suggest to first create a sensor database with all the sensors that you will use. You can create this by hand in DEWESoft or with a script if you already have all of the sensor details in digital form. You can add sensors directly through channels or enter the sensor database and create them there. If you want to go with the program route, I would recommend create a couple of test sensors by hand and then study how the "AnalogSensors.dxb" file is formatted. The file has an XML structure, so it shouldn't be too hard to recreate it on your own with a script.

When the sensor database is constructed, you can then use DCOM in your application to assign specific sensors to specific channels. This is done via the "IDaqChannel" interface, with the "SetSensor" function.

Just as a side thought, you can use TEDS with your sensors, which is a chip that can store sensor information. You could write all of the sensor factors to the chip and it will be automatically recognized when you connect it.

Hi,

First, thanks for your answer !

I will definitely see how the DXB file is formated ! Thanks !

But I was not clear enough, what I want is to be able to configure DEWESoft for each hardware we have, it means programmatically adding the DEWESoft hardware in the DXS file. It means programmatically creating the DXS file with our SIRiUS / Krypton file and then adding the specific sensor for the specific channel of the hardware.

Is it possible ?

We can't create it by hand, in the future we're gonna have a lot of DEWESoft hardware in 2 different rooms and we need to programmatically define where all the hardware will be with which sensors.

We are not planning to use TED sensors, since the choice of the sensor is not our responisbility.

Thanks for your help,

Max

Okay, my bad.

I didn't see that we could use a XML file for the setup.

I think, the problem is solved.

Regards,