Interfacing LabView with PLX_pci 9050/52

[upen]

I have a PCI card PLX Technology, and card number 9050 / 52 (procured from subvendors in India) connected to the PCI slot of my Computer.

Further, my subvendors provided a VC++ code through which I can read the data from all Analog

Input channels.
I dont know how to communicate with this PCI device to LabVIEW.

And also, I am not good at these programming languages (Basically I am a Chemical Engineer)

I would be greateful If someone can suggest a solution to this interfacing problem

I am using LabVIEW 7.1, Measurement studio 6.0 and Operating System: windows XP.

Thanks in advance.

Upendar

[Collin M]

I have a few questions first.

Have you asked the subvendor if they already have a LabVIEW driver for your card?

Does the VC++ code you have access the card through an driver? You can determine this by looking in the Windows device manager, clicking on your device, and then clicking the driver tab.

If they provided a driver (dll) then LabVIEW can directly access that driver.

Did they provide any documentation with the VC++ source code?

[upen]

Mr.Collin,

Thank you for your response.
I asked my subvendors whether they have already having a driver for LabView, the answer was no.

>>Does the VC++ code you have access the card through a driver?

Yes it accesses through a driver (Driver provider: Sub vendor, and its not digitally signed)

I installed the driver just after I inserted the PCI card into the system.
but that driver is a system file (at C\ Windows\ System32\ drivers\ pci9050) its not in 'dll'.

and they provided some documentation with VC++ file such as Essential Library files,Type definition and various functions definition.

These essential files contain few library and dll files.
from wherein Labview can I call these 'dll's

Upen

[Collin M]

LabVIEW provides a Call Library Function node that calls directly into a dll from within LabVIEW.

[upen]

Dear Collin,
Thank You.

>> LabVIEW provides a Call Library Function node that calls directly into a dll from within LabVIEW

When I call my dll from this Call Library Function (CLF) node it displays all the functions that were exported from the header file with the command  _declspec (dllexport). Infact, there are more than one function in the dll such as chip selection, base address selection and read data etc...

However, no parameters are displayed in the function node configuration window. Now, do I need to again produce a .c file and then build the shared library (dll) for this. or else, I can use the given dll directly ?

I have consulted the manual 'using external code in Labview' in that an example of avaraging an array values is given. Ofcourse! therein we give array as the input to the CLF node, but in my case since, it is reading from a device how to set the input to node.

Please clarify. Thanks in in Advance.

Upen

[Collin M]

You can right-click on the Call Library Function vi and click configure. After you enter the path to the dll you are trying to configure and choose the function, click on the Parameters tab. There you can add arguments and a return type. At the bottom of the dialog you will see the C style function prototype. You shouldn't need to write any more C code as you can use the dll directly.