Obsolete and depreciated versions

 Legal stuff...       Warthog software is free.  However, it is the property of the Regents of the University of California.  Hence, commercial resale of Warthog Systems software is prohibited, and no warranties or guarantees of any kind are offered.  If you use these programs, you do so entirely at your own risk.  They are intended for scientific research or teaching projects that do NOT involve human subjects!

   LabAnalyst FP
 ('classic' Mac OS only)
(~1.2Mb)
October 6, 2003 Note: To use large files, set memory limits with the Finder's Get Info command. Reserve ~ 120 megabytes for million-case filess.

analysis program and preferences file.  

See notes 1 and X, below

LabHelper FP2 (PowerPC only)
(~ 1.8 Mb)

LabHelper FP
(~ 1 Mb)

LabHelper (68K)
(~ 370 Kb)

February 12, 2004


July 31, 2002


February 18, 2000

Note: To use large files, set memory limits with the Finder's Get Info command. Reserve ~ 120 megabytes for million-case files.


uses NI PCI-MIO-16XE-50 in most modes (FP & FP2 only).

acquisition program and preferences file.

 See note 1, 1.5, and 2, below

Motion Analysis (PowerPC only)

Motion Analysis (OS X only)

July 14, 2002 simple 2-dimensional image analysis program
  NI driver patch
(~180 K)
 December 18, 1997

 none

National Instruments driver software patches

See notes 3 and 4, below

NOTE X:  There are many differences between current OS X versions and the now-ancient LabAnalyst and LabHelper FP; most importantly:

  • The 'X' versions work only in OS X (10.4 or higher).
  • Performance, appearance, and features are a lot better in OS X.
  • LabAnalyst X and LabHelper X let you work with files with several million samples and have numerous new capabilities and functions not present in FP.

Basic operations are similar and the file structure is backwards-compatible -- but don't try to read a large file (>32K of samples) created in LabHelper X or LabAnalyst X with an old copy of LabAnalyst FP.

The following notes mostly concern hardware that hasn't been manufactured for years and software that runs under long-obsolete operating systems.

NOTE 1:  The 'FP' versions of LabAnalyst and LabHelper include new features, but the main changes and improvements over the 'regular' versions are:

  • FP numerical algorithms use floating-point math instead of binary-coded decimal (BCD) math
  • FP software is written in a 'fat binary' code that runs in native mode on PowerPC processors (as well as on 68K machines)
  • the FP version requires System 7.5 or higher; the 'plain' version also runs on earlier systems

These changes confer substantial speed increases in many operations. The minor downside is that older BCD binary data files are read somewhat less rapidly than previously (but files saved in the new FP format are loaded extremely quickly).


NOTE 1.5:  The 'FP2' version of LabHelper is an upgraded version of LabHelper FP that includes:

  • More samples per channel.
  • Works with the NI PCI-MIO-16XE-50 board, which has 16 channels of analog inputs with sixteen-bit resolution and gains of 1-100: a considerable improvement over 12-bit boards (the equivalent PC card device does not work).
  • Allows some post-conversion manipulations of data, including response correction (using the Z-correction algorithm) and calculations for aerial respirometry (oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, and evaporative water loss). These can now be displayed in real time (and optionally saved to disk).

LabHelper FP2 only runs on PowerPC machines with OS 8 and OS 9 operating systems. It will not allow use of multi-channel oscilloscope mode with 16-bit boards, but I doubt if that will cause much inconvenience.


NOTE 2:  The 'FP' version of LabHelper is faster than the 'plain' version when running on PowerPC Macs.  However, when running on a 68K Mac it is about 25% slower in many aspects of data acquisition when using National Instruments cards.  Therefore, if acquisition speed is paramount, use the 'plain' version if you have a 68K machine and the 'FP' version if you have a PowerMac.


NOTE 3:  To use LabHelper with a National Instruments A-D card (LabNB, PCI-1200, or DAQCard-1200, PCI-MIO-16XE-50), you need the National Instruments driver software (NI-DAQ) version 4.9.x, which is included when you buy the card.  If you aren't using LabHelper, or if you are using it with an external analog-to-digital converter, you do not need NI-DAQ.  If you have an earlier version of NI-DAQ and want to upgrade to the latest, go to the NI website:
      http://www.natinst.com/
Find their downloads page and look through it until you find Ni-DAQ for the Mac. The binary version is multiple megabytes and the binhexed version is even bigger (this is because both 4.9.x and 6.x -- plus a lot of other stuff -- are included in the same source file).

Once you have succesfully acquired the code -- either as part of an A-D card purchase or a downloaded copy -- you need to figure out what to do with it.  Fortunately, you only need the 'minimal' installation of NI-DAQ 4.9.x, namely the NI-DAQ control panel and the NI-DMA/DSP extension (which total about 1.5 Mb).  Note that newer versions of the DAQ software will not work with LabHelper.  Last time I checked, which was quite a while ago, NI was shipping both version 4.9.x and version 6.x with their cards, and 4.9.x is bundled with 6.x on the NI website.  NI says that version 4.9 works with both 680X0 and PowerMacs, while 6.x is restricted to PowerMacs.  Don't get confused by this: even if you are using only PowerMacs, do not install 6.x if you want LabHelper to work.


NOTE 4:  In addition to NI-DAQ, you need a couple of software 'patches' to make the system run at maximal speed with LabHelper and 12-bit NI cards (LabNB, PCI-1200, DAQCard-1200).  You can download these from this page.  To get them to work, the folder entitled "NI-DAQ Extensions" must be placed in your computer's Control Panels folder (within the System folder).

I got these patches from a kindly National Instruments engineer, after I fretted about how slowly my system ran following the switch from NI-DAQ version 4.7 to 4.8.  I presume it's OK to put them on the web, since I can't find them on the NI website, but keep in mind that they, like the rest of the NI-DAQ software, are copyrighted by National Instruments, and you should check all the legal stuff at their web site: http://www.natinst.com/.

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