As a data acquisition package, DAQFactory must communicate with many different pieces of hardware.  To enable DAQFactory to do so, it uses what are called Devices.  These are libraries of code that act as translators between DAQFactory and the particular piece of hardware you would like to use.  AzeoTech offers a wide variety of devices to allow you to communicate with an even larger variety of data acquisition and process control hardware and sensors.  This chapter provides specific information for each device currently shipped with DAQFactory.  Additional and updated devices are made available from our website at www.azeotech.com.  We can also provide you with custom or enhanced devices for a modest cost if you would like.

Installing a device:

When DAQFactory ships, it installs a wide selection of devices.  However, we are constantly creating new devices and updating old ones.  Typically, installing these new devices is simply a matter of pointing the install program to the directory where DAQFactory is installed.  Almost all devices are simply made up of a .dll file with the code for the actual device and a .dds text file with some information about the device.

Note: Most hardware specific devices require drivers from the manufacturer.  The drivers must be installed for the corresponding DAQFactory device drivers to function.  If you are getting the C1033 error, it may be because your hardware manufacturer driver is not installed, or because a required DLL from the manufacturer cannot be found.

Tip:  If you would like to remove a device from the list of possible devices displayed when creating Channels, simply rename (or delete) the .dds file associated with the device(s) you would like to remove to something without a .dds extension.  DAQFactory only loads devices with a .dds file associated with them.