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NI PCI-6251

16-Bit, 1 MS/s (Multichannel), 1.25 MS/s (1-Channel), 16 Analog Inputs

  • Two 16-bit analog outputs (2.8 MS/s); 24 digital I/O; 32-bit counters
  • NIST-traceable calibration certificate and more than 70 signal conditioning options
  • Correlated DIO (8 clocked lines, 10 MHz); analog and digital triggering
  • NI-MCal calibration technology for increased measurement accuracy
  • Get improved measurement accuracy, resolution, and sensitivity by choosing high-accuracy M Series.
  • NI-DAQmx driver software and NI LabVIEW SignalExpress LE interactive data-logging software
View Data Sheet and Specifications

The National Instruments PCI-6251 is a high-speed multifunction M Series data acquisition (DAQ) board optimized for superior accuracy at fast sampling rates. For increased measurement accuracy, consider the high-accuracy M Series devices with an 18-bit analog-to-digital converter providing a 4X resolution increase.

High-speed M Series devices incorporate advanced features such as the NI-STC 2 system controller, NI-PGIA 2 programmable amplifier, and NI-MCal calibration technology to increase performance and accuracy. High-speed M Series devices have an onboard NI-PGIA 2 amplifier designed for fast settling time at high scanning rates, ensuring 16-bit accuracy even when measuring all channels at maximum speeds. To learn more about M Series technologies, device specifications, and information on recommended cables and accessories, please refer to the data sheet and specifications.

Driver Software
M Series devices work with multiple operating systems using three driver software options including NI-DAQmx, NI-DAQmx Base, and the Measurement Hardware DDK. Browse the information in the Resources tab to learn more about driver software or download a driver. M Series devices are not compatible with the Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) driver.

Application Software
With NI LabVIEW, you can create custom data acquisition applications with the ease of graphical programming and power of more than 500 analysis functions and advanced programming tools. LabVIEW Full and Professional Development Systems include LabVIEW SignalExpress for interactive data logging. M Series data acquisition devices are compatible with the following versions (or later) of NI application software – LabVIEW 7.x, LabWindows™/CVI 7.x, or Measurement Studio 7.x; LabVIEW SignalExpress 1.x; or LabVIEW with the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1. M Series data acquisition devices are also compatible with Visual Studio .NET, C/C++, and Visual Basic 6.

NI PCI-6251 Complete Package

Each NI PCI-6251 requires:

1 Connector Block1 CableNI PCI-6251Software

Roll over icons above to learn why you need each item in the package.

NI PCI-6251 and Accessories

Hardware Subtotal: $ 1,477
NI PCI-6251 - 779070-01 Qty $ 1,049 each
Connector Block - Screw Terminal
SCB-68 - 776844-01
Qty $ 299 each
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Cable - Shielded
Qty $ 129 each
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Software

Software Subtotal: $ 2,599
NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English) - 776670-09 Qty $ 2,599 each
Note: NI recommends this software for maximum ease of use and productivity with this device. You should only purchase this device without software if you already own compatible application software. View Compatible Application Software | Compare to LabVIEW SignalExpress Limited Edition
Note: This software is required to use null. You should only purchase null without a LabVIEW Development System if you already own a minimum of LabVIEW Base for Windows version 8.6.1. Upgrade Your Development System Now
Package Price: $ 4,076
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Specifications Documents


Specifications Summary

General 
Form FactorPCI
Operating System / TargetWindows, Real-Time, Linux, Mac OS
Measurement TypeDigital, Frequency, Quadrature encoder, Voltage
DAQ Product FamilyM Series
LabVIEW RT SupportYes
Analog Input 
Number of Channels16 SE/8 DI
Sample Rate1.25 MS/s
Resolution16 bits
Simultaneous SamplingNo
Maximum Voltage Range-10..10 V
      Range Accuracy1920 µV
      Range Sensitivity112 µV
Minimum Voltage Range-100..100 mV
      Range Accuracy52 µV
      Range Sensitivity6 µV
Number of Ranges7
On-Board Memory4095 samples
Analog Output 
Number of Channels2
Update Rate2.86 MS/s
Resolution16 bits
Maximum Voltage Range-10..10 V
      Range Accuracy2080 µV
Minimum Voltage Range-5..5 V
      Range Accuracy1045 µV
Current Drive (Channel/Total)5 mA
Digital I/O 
Number of Channels24 DIO
TimingHardware, Software
Maximum Clock Rate10 MHz
Logic LevelsTTL
Maximum Input Range0..5 V
Maximum Output Range0..5 V
Input Current FlowSinking, Sourcing
Programmable Input FiltersYes
Output Current FlowSinking, Sourcing
Current Drive (Channel/Total)24 mA/448 mA
Watchdog TimerNo
Supports Programmable Power-Up States?Yes
Supports Handshaking I/O?No
Supports Pattern I/O?Yes
Counter/Timers 
Number of Counter/Timers2
Resolution32 bits
Maximum Source Frequency80 MHz
Minimum Input Pulse Width12.5 ns
Logic LevelsTTL
Maximum Range0..5 V
Timebase Stability50 ppm
GPS SynchronizationNo
Pulse GenerationYes
Buffered OperationsYes
Debouncing/Glitch RemovalYes
Number of DMA Channels2
Timing/Triggering/Synchronization 
Synchronization Bus (RTSI)Yes
TriggeringAnalog, Digital

Extended Warranties

National Instruments designs and manufactures all products to minimize failures, however unexpected failures can still occur. Extended warranties provide a fixed economical price at the time of system purchase, covering any repair costs for up to three years. In addition, they offer the following benefits:

  • Significant cost savings compared to individual repair incidents
  • Fault location, diagnostics, and repair by NI any time the system product fails
  • All parts and labor costs covered as well as any adjustments needed to restore the hardware to manufacturing specifications

For more information about your warranty options:

Calibration

NI recognizes the need to maintain properly calibrated devices for high-accuracy measurements. NI provides manual calibration procedures, services to recalibrate your products, and automated calibration software to calibrate many NI measurement products.

Training

NI training is the fastest, most certain route to productivity with NI tools and successful application development.

Repair Services

Return your registered product under warranty at no additional labor and parts cost. NI offers fault location, diagnostics, and repair any time the system fails as well as any adjustments needed to restore the hardware to manufacturing specifications.

Technical Support

ni.com/support

Select your application need to see compatible software options for the NI PCI-6251.

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Graphical Programming Text-Based Programming
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Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776670-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English)
NI Recommended
1 - 2 $ 2,599.00
777756-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Linux 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
776675-01 LabVIEW Application Builder for Windows (English)
NI Recommended
5 - 10 $ 999.00
777755-03 NI LabVIEW Application Builder for Linux 5 - 10 $ 999.00
778406-03 NI LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 5 - 10 $ 529.00
778807-09 DIAdem Advanced Edition (English) 5 - 10 $ 2,399.00

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Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
776800-09 LabWindows/CVI Full Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778801-09 NI Measurement Studio Professional Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 5 - 10 $ 1,249.00
779384-03 NI LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Module for Linux 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00
778807-09 DIAdem Advanced Edition (English) 5 - 10 $ 2,399.00

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Other compatible software: ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 6.0
Graphical Programming Text-Based Programming
Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776670-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English)
NI Recommended
1 - 2 $ 2,599.00
779037-09 NI LabVIEW SignalExpress for Windows 5 - 10 $ 749.00
777756-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Linux 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
776675-01 LabVIEW Application Builder for Windows (English)
NI Recommended
5 - 10 $ 999.00
777755-03 NI LabVIEW Application Builder for Linux 5 - 10 $ 999.00
778406-03 NI LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit for Microsoft Office 5 - 10 $ 529.00
778807-09 DIAdem Advanced Edition (English) 5 - 10 $ 2,399.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776800-09 LabWindows/CVI Full Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778801-09 NI Measurement Studio Professional Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 5 - 10 $ 1,249.00
779384-03 NI LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Module for Linux 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00
778807-09 DIAdem Advanced Edition (English) 5 - 10 $ 2,399.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Other compatible software: ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 6.0
Graphical Programming Text-Based Programming
Option 1: Select one of the following NI Developer Suite packages or Configure Your NI Developer Suite >>
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
DS410841 NI Developer Suite Core with Automated Test Option (English)
NI Recommended
  $ 8,298.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Option 2: Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776670-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English) 1 - 2 $ 2,599.00
777756-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Linux 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
776675-01 LabVIEW Application Builder for Windows (English) 5 - 10 $ 999.00
777755-03 NI LabVIEW Application Builder for Linux 5 - 10 $ 999.00
777777-09 NI TestStand Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 3,899.00

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Option 1: Select one of the following NI Developer Suite packages or Configure Your NI Developer Suite >>
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
DS410841 NI Developer Suite Core with Automated Test Option (English)
NI Recommended
  $ 8,298.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Option 2: Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776800-09 LabWindows/CVI Full Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778801-09 NI Measurement Studio Professional Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 5 - 10 $ 1,249.00
779384-03 NI LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Module for Linux 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00
777777-09 NI TestStand Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 3,899.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Other compatible software: ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 6.0
Graphical Programming Text-Based Programming
Option 1: Select one of the following NI Developer Suite packages or Configure Your NI Developer Suite >>
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
DS410863 NI Developer Suite Core with Control Design and Simulation Option (English)
NI Recommended
  $ 8,398.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Option 2: Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776670-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English) 1 - 2 $ 2,599.00
777756-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Linux 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
780050-09 NI LabVIEW Control Design and Simulation Module 5 - 10 $ 3,099.00
778941-03 NI LabVIEW System Identification Toolkit for Windows 5 - 10 $ 1,099.00
778552-03 NI LabVIEW Simulation Interface Toolkit for Windows 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00

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Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776800-09 LabWindows/CVI Full Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778801-09 NI Measurement Studio Professional Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 5 - 10 $ 1,249.00
779667-09 NI LabWindows/CVI Real-Time Module 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778915-03 NI LabWindows/CVI Execution Trace Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 1,029.00
779509-03 NI LabWindows/CVI PID Control Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00
777757-01 NI PID Toolkit for Visual Basic 5 - 10 $ 529.00

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Other compatible software: ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 6.0
Graphical Programming Text-Based Programming
Option 1: Select one of the following NI Developer Suite packages or Configure Your NI Developer Suite >>
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
DS410838 NI Developer Suite Core with Real-Time Deployment Option (English)
NI Recommended
  $ 7,298.00

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Option 2: Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
(change)
Qty
776670-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Windows (English) 1 - 2 $ 2,599.00
777756-09 NI LabVIEW Full Development System for Linux 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
777844-09 NI LabVIEW Real-Time Module for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
779953-09 NI LabVIEW Statechart Module 5 - 10 $ 1,599.00
778915-03 NI LabVIEW Execution Trace Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 1,029.00
778807-09 DIAdem Advanced Edition (English) 5 - 10 $ 2,399.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Option 1: Select one of the following NI Developer Suite packages or Configure Your NI Developer Suite >>
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
DS557505 NI Developer Suite Core with Real-Time for LabWindows/CVI Deployment Option (English)
NI Recommended
  $ 7,398.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Option 2: Select any of the following software products
Part
Number
Description Est Ship Days Glossary Definition US Dollars
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Qty
776800-09 LabWindows/CVI Full Development System for Windows 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778801-09 NI Measurement Studio Professional Edition for Microsoft Visual Studio 5 - 10 $ 1,249.00
779667-09 NI LabWindows/CVI Real-Time Module 5 - 10 $ 2,599.00
778915-03 NI LabWindows/CVI Execution Trace Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 1,029.00
779509-03 NI LabWindows/CVI PID Control Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 1,049.00
777607-01 NI ActiveX Automation Symbols Toolkit 5 - 10 $ 529.00
777757-01 NI PID Toolkit for Visual Basic 5 - 10 $ 529.00

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You have selected United States as the country where you will use the product(s) (change).

Other compatible software: ANSI C/C++, C#, Visual Basic .NET, Visual Basic 6.0

Driver Software