RS-485 on LabVIEW Real-Time for ETS

[Ed007]

Does anyone know whether the RS485 line of National Instruments cards is supported in LabVIEW real-time for ETS. THe products description claims that the cards are supported in LabVIEW Real-Time, but when I go to the list of supported products on the LabVIEW Real-Time web page, it states that only the buil-in serial port is supported in LabVIEW Real-Time for ETS. Would anyone happen to know which is the case?
It seems to me that a possible lack of support of RS485 cards in LabVIEW Real-Time for ETS is a big drawback of LabVIEW Real-Time. Almost any ATE stand being built today has some form of RS485 communication and sometimes it is necessary to compare the time-stamped data coming from the RS485 port and the other types of feedback (analog, digital). This is only possible if the machine runs real-time. But what if RS485 cards are not supported in LabVIEW Real-Time for ETS?
Thanks.

[JoshuaP]

Yes, National Instruments PXI-842x boards are currently supported under LabVIEW Real-Time in the PXI form factor. At this time we do not currently support the PCI boards on LabVIEW Real-Time on desktops. If you would like more information please let me know and specify whether you are interested in the PXI or desktop applications.

Joshua Prewitt
National Instruments

[Ed007]

Are there any plans to include a support for RS485 cards for LabVIEW RT for ETS desktop applications in the future, or do I have to switch to PXI altogether to be able to use RS485 protocol in real-time?

[JoshuaP]

Officially right now if you wanted to use NI serial boards on LabVIEW RT you will need to switch to PXI and if you are going to be using other NI products like DAQ, Motion, IMAQ... I would suggest switching to PXI for its other benefits and you will know that EVERYTHING is going to work. In addition, we are currently looking at officially adding support for desktop ETS to our NI-Serial RT driver.

However, there might be a work around in some instances. In these cases please email in to our customer support for more details.

Joshua Prewitt
National Instruments