pcmcia-232 error communication

[Moonself]

Goodmorning,

I have to move a VI from an old laptop, provided with serial port, to a new laptop, which only have USB and PCMCIA. On this second laptop I installed a NI PCMCIA-232 card.

The VI communicates with fieldpoints in order to move a table.

I expected that, once installed on the new pc, I should change the port number in MAX, according to the new port number (it was COM1, now it is COM4); the problem is that even doing that the program is not working properly: there's some kind of activity in the field point leds but the table won't move (while of course it works perfectly using the old pc).

If I try to run the configurator I am not able to read the field points and it always says that COM4 is already in use.

If anybody could hint me about what I am doing wrong or what's the correct procedure to follow, that would be nice.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Paolo

[Logan_081]

Hello Paolo,

Which Field Point Controller and related drivers are you using? Did you upgrade your Operative System? We can consider that the PCMCIA-232 device does not provide any biasing on the 232 bus. In this case the only solution to this problem is to provide external biasing. Anyway i need much more details about your application. Waiting for a response.

Regards

[Moonself]

Hi Matteo,
thanks for your reply.
The controller should be a FP-1000 and I downloaded the drivers from NI website about one month ago.
Anyway, after some "try and error" I have managed to have the system working. There were a couple of wrong procedures I was following, due to lack of knowledge:

-I used both MAX and the VI at the same time, although the VI was stopped, and apparently only the program which is opened first will have "access" to the port <port binding?>, while the latter will not be able to communicate with the FP controller. Does it make sense?

-also, while porting from an old VI, made with labview 6, the software had lost the "iak file path" controller which I restored. I also learned "on my skin" that without that path, LABView will automatically use the last file configured in MAX.

All in all, my fault... I was so sure that the problem was in the 232-pcmcia interface that I "forgot" to read the basic help for the fieldpoint.
As they say: "when everything else fails, read the manual".

Thanks again.
Paolo