How can I best control a non NI USB device using LabVIEW?

[rogerb917]

One of our radio products has a USB port for local (test) control.  When I connect the radio to a USB port on my computer the NI Measurement and Automation Explorer does not recognize the device.  Nor does it recognize the device when I attempt to "add new device".

Within LabVIEW I am unable to assign an appropriate VISA resource name that does not cause an error when attempting to use the "VISA USB Control Out" or "VISA USB Control In" functions.  The help page for wiring up these functions is unclear, particularly for the "request" and "request type" variables.

Would it be best to pursue this current method or purchase some type of serial (com port) to USB converter hardware to communicate with my USB radio?

Regards

Roger

[MikeS81]

Hi Robert,
did you install the driver of this device first?
Mike

[rogerb917]

Mike:

Yes I did install the driver first and I am able to communicate with it via a custom in-house utility.

Roger

[Dennis_Knutson]

By 'our radiot products', I'm assuming that is a product of the company you work for and you should be able to get information on it. If the USB port does not appear as a com port in MAX or windows device manager, then it is not emulating a serial port. Of course, you may have failed to install the windows driver for it.

If there exists a windows driver, then that would be your best option for communicating with it. If this is a product your company sells, would it not ship with a driver?

[PhillipBrooks]

You might want to look at one of the recent "Community Nuggets" that discusses general USB communcations using LabVIEW.

http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=340897&query.id=20120#M340897

[remerlin]

Sorry for the hijack, but this is a related question... I have an LV application that works using COM1 on the PC.  Customer wants me to change to a USB-to-RS485 converter.  I installed the Windows driver for the converter, then plugged the converter into USB port on the PC.  Windows and MAX both see the new port.  What I'm not sure of is the best way to have the LV app find the converter.  This application will be used on a variety of PCs so the COM port will be likely to change from PC to PC.  Or even on the same PC, sometimes another USB device might get plugged in before the converter.

So the question is this:  The converter will always have the same vendor ID.  Is there a way for LabVIEW to look at the USB devices and pick the one with the correct ID ?  Or maybe this is overkill... the Windows driver makes the converter look like a serial port (COM4 on my PC).  The original app that worked with com1 used the VISA Configure Serial function with ASRL1:INSTR. 

I can modify the LV app to force the user to pick from the available COM ports, but would prefer to make this happen automatically.

Any suggestions ?

[Dennis_Knutson]

remerlin,

You really need to start posting new questions instead of hijacking other threads. Aside from the generic USB reference, your question is not at all related to the op's. You might as well pick any other question in this board and say yours is related because you are using LabVIEW.