I want to make a serial communication application that both runs on a PC and on Compact Fielpoint

[Jarkie]

I have an motor control application that sends out serial commands to an indexer. I want to make this application runnable on both a pc and a compact fieldpoint unit. I don't have a compact fieldpoint to test at this moment, but I have read in the manual that the compact fieldpoint uses it own serial routines and doesn't support visa, and those fieldpoint routines don't work on a PC.
I thought in making a custom write and a cutom read block that accept a ring with the choice of PC and fieldpoint, and a VISA resource name and a port number for the fieldpoint.
My question is: Can the fieldpoint handle VISA variables if they are not being used.

[Dan_Mondrik]

Jarkie:

LabVIEW (on any target) will not try to load or execute any VISA functions until they appear in the flow of the diagram. So if you have a VI that includes VISA refnums but they are inside a case that never gets executed, then it should work fine because LabVIEW will ignore the VISA portion.

For what it's worth, the next version of NI-VISA will support FieldPoint. So if it's just long-term extensibility you want, VISA is the way to go. But if you need it there now, then your idea ought to work.

Dan Mondrik
Senior Software Engineer, NI-VISA
National Instruments

[Mako]

I was interested in VISA on Compact FieldPoint as well, since it seems initalizing a serial port as a VISA resource is the only way to individually set the state of control lines.

Is there a timeframe in which VISA support for FieldPoint will be available? Near future, or just a planned feature?