Why should I use NI Counter/Timers?

The NI 660x counter/timers use the National Instruments NI-TIO, a National Instruments ASIC designed specifically to meet the counting and timing requirements of measurement applications that are beyond the capabilities of off-the-shelf components. The wider functionality and simpler programming interface make the NI 660x ideal for counting and timing applications.

In addition to counter/timer functionality, the NI 660x devices include TTL-compatible digital I/O ports that are bit-configurable for input or output. These devices are suited for frequency measurement, generation of retriggerable pulses, frequency shift-keying, two-signal edge separation measurements, continuous buffered event counting, and continuous buffered pulse train measurements. The NI 660x counter/timer devices are readily integrated into measurement systems that require synchronization across multiple hardware devices because they are equipped with the National Instruments PXI Trigger bus or the RTSI bus.

The Power of NI-DAQ
NI-DAQ is the robust driver software included with all National Instruments data acquisition and signal conditioning products. This easy-to-use software tightly integrates the full functionality of your DAQ hardware to LabVIEW, Measurement Studio, C/C++, and Visual Basic. NI-DAQ implements single-point and buffered analog I/O, digital I/O, and counter/timer input operations. High-performance features include multidevice synchronization, networked measurements, and DMA data management. Bundled with NI-DAQ, the Measurement & Automation Explorer utility simplifies the configuration of your measurement hardware with device test panels, interactive measurements, and scaled I/O channels.