Hello,
for a current project, I need to communicate with multiple (e.g. 16 or 32) sensors via I2C in parallel. As the sensors are all identical and therefore have identical (unchangeable) I2C addresses, I need to use separate I2C busses. In addition, I would like to communicate in a parallel fashion, i.e. read/write for each bus independently. We use Matlab for high-level experiment control.
1) We already have a NI-8452 in the lab that we have used to communicate with a single device successfully. In the manual, a I2C port is mentioned (and can be read out (=0) with the C library). The Manual however never specifies whether there is only a single port or if it is somehow possible to create a second port. On the other hand, since the DIO lines are all software-timed, my assumption would be that this is not possible - then why does the IC2 port exist in the first place?
2) Assuming the NI-8452 (or a couple of those in parallel) is not a good option, what would be my best Hardware option from NI for this task?
E.g., would the PXI-6535/6/7 line be suitable for such parallel I2C operation?
Thanks in advance for your help,
Cheers,
Jakob