pci 2s550

[AWA]

I just bought a PCI serial card that adds two extra serial ports.

I'm running windows XP on a brand new PC with lots of USB ports and only one serial port.

When I installed the serial card it puts the two serial ports on com 11 and com 12, because all of the other ports are being used. 

My problem is that  the serial vi only allows me to select up to com 9.

So how do I get the Serial Vi to take come 11 and com 12?

Thank you 🙂

[Dennis_Knutson]

First, do the extra serial ports show up in MAX? Second, you mention "Serial VI". Are you using the old, obsolete serial functions? If you are, switch to using VISA.

[AWA]

I'm not sure what MAX is, so I'm going to say no.

I am using the old out of date serial Vi's, so I will try using visa today.

[Doug M]

AWA,

Like Dennis said, the ports need to show up in MAX for you to be able to access them.  MAX stands for Measurement and Automation Explorer and is installed automatically with most NI software.  If you have it, you should be able to access it by going to Start >> Programs >> National Instruments >> Measurement and Automation.  MAX has a tree-like hierarchy structure that shows different software and hardware components in your system.  By going to System >> Devices and Interfaces >> Ports, you should be able to see what ports are available to you to use by VISA.  The latest version of VISA can be downloaded here.

[AWA]

First off, Thank you both.

I now have the visa working in place of the old serial interface Vi's

Here is my next question: Do I need to use an Init.Vi for the visa vi's? like I do with the serial vi's?

[Dennis_Knutson]

You should do a VISA Open followed by a VISA Configure Serial Port. Both of these should only need to be once, at the beginning of your program. At the end of your program, use a VISA Close.

[Doug M]

AWA,

There is an awesome shipping example with NI-VISA that shows basic serial communication.  Please open the NI Example Finder in LabVIEW by going to Help >> Find Examples...

Browse to the example: Hardware Input and Output >> Serial >> Basic Serial Write and Read.vi

This example shows how to open a basic serial visa session and write and read to and from the serial port.

[AWA]

Will do. Thank you again.

[AWA]

Here is one of the vi's I changed. Can you view to see if correct. 

[Doug M]

AWA,
At quick glance, your VI looks pretty good.  The best way to check is just to try it and see if it works.  You shouldn't need to use a stacked sequence structure -- as a general rule this makes your code less readable -- you can achieve the same effect by forcing data flow through the use of error clusters.  Also, you are requesting a certain number of bytes in your VISA Read, which is fine if you know exactly how many bytes you need to read, otherwise you may want to use the 'Bytes at Port' property as shown in the Basic Serial Write and Read VI.