Cannot see COM ports on client PC in MAX

[Thoric]

I'm developing an application that connects to four third party devices via RS232. I'm using VISA resource names as defined in MAX to ensure the software communicates with the correct device. This all works well.

On the client's PC, upon which will only be a built application, I installed NI-DAQmx and opened MAX to configure the COM ports to match the label names that application will be expecting, but no COM ports are listed. I wondered if VISA wasn't installed, so I searched my LabVIEW distribution disks for anything VISA based and found a few installable programs. I've installed each of these, but no difference. MAX is just not recognising the COM ports.

Oddly, if I instead launch the VISA Interactive Control application I can see all my COM ports. They just don't appear in MAX.

Am I missing something??

Using LV 8.5.1, NI-DAQmx 8.8, NI-VISA 4.4, NI-VISA Runtime 4.4, MAX 4.5

[Thoric]

Very odd solution: Went to ni.com/download and asked for the latest version of VISA. Same version as I've installed, but the file size was much much bigger than the files on my distribution disk set. Installed this onto the client PC, rebooted and voila! Four com ports in MAX.

Where is this full development version of VISA in the distribution set?

[Dennis_Knutson]

The full version of NI-VISA is on the same CD/DVR that you used to install LabVIEW and the driver on your development pc.

When you build your app, all you really need to do is create an installer. Choose to install the NI-VISA run-time and export your existing hardware configuration. MAX is optional but something I recomend. Of course, you would need to include the LabVIEW run-time as well. The full version of NI-VISA is not required for a deployment.

[Thoric]

Thanks for the details Dennis. The reason I wanted to initially install all appropriate drivers by hand was because my application isn't ready yet and I didn't want to create a 2Gb installation disk just yet. I say 2Gb because NI-DAQmx is always massive, and with NI-VISA on top etc. it's very likely to be much bigger than a single CD's worth 😉

I've searched the DVD for NI-VISA but cannot see it (not an equivalent to the 300Mb NI.com download file anyway) There are a handful of 6 or 7 Mb installations, but I had tried these to no avail. I only found the full development version worked for me.

Maybe I did it a bit backward, next time I'll just create a build DVD and sod the costs 😉