NI USB-6000

USB-6000 support on Windows, Linux and macOS

The USB-6000 runs on NI-DAQmx, NI’s free driver, and NI’s hardware and OS compatibility table lists it for Windows 11, Windows 10 LTSC and Windows Server 2022 and 2025. The same table marks it “Not Supported” on every desktop Linux distribution NI-DAQmx covers (RHEL 9 and 10, openSUSE Leap 15.6 and 16, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04). There is no NI-DAQmx for macOS, and NI-DAQmx Base, the old Mac driver, ended at version 15.0 with macOS 10.14 as its newest supported release. On Windows you get NI MAX for configuration and test panels, FlexLogger for logging without code, and the NI-DAQmx API for LabVIEW, C and Python through NI’s nidaqmx package.

Sample rate, range and resolution on a 12-bit multiplexed input

All eight inputs share one 12-bit converter through a multiplexer, so 10 kS/s is the total for the scan list. Scan four channels and each gets 2.5 kS/s at most. The only range is ±10 V single-ended, so one code is roughly 4.9 mV wide. That resolution suits 0 to 10 V transmitters, battery and supply rails and slow control signals, and it is too coarse for millivolt signals such as bridge sensors or thermocouples. The four digital lines are individually programmable as inputs or outputs, and the counter does rising or falling edge counting on PFI 0. The device is bus powered over USB Full Speed, with a 16-position screw terminal plug for wiring. NI’s list price at the time of writing is $289 for the enclosed kit and the same for the OEM board.

If you need analog output or a differential input mode, the USB-6001 adds both for a small step up in price. DAQAtlas, which is in development, reaches the USB-6000 through DAQAtlas Bridge running on the Windows PC it is plugged into, as the NI DAQ on a Mac guide describes.