Is NiViUsbK.sys royalty free to redistribute?

[John Speth]

Hi everyone-

My company makes test/measurement equipment.  We are designing a meter with a USB interface.  A primary requirement is that the meter be Labview friendly.  Preliminary testing and benchmarking tells us that USB raw mode for NI VISA communication is feasible.  It requires the installation of the NiViUsbK.sys device driver.  This driver is installed from the INF file created by using the VISA Driver Development Wizard.

Does anyone know:

Since the driver enables my LV application code to communicate with the meter, is the driver API publicly available to so other programming languages/platforms can use it?

If the API is publicly availble, are we free to redistribute the driver without license/royalty fees?

Thanks, John Speth

[Chris_R.]

Hi John,

As long as the user of the VISA drivers is using LabVIEW, CVI, Measurement Studio or any other NI Hardware, it is okay to use and distribute the VISA driver for your USB device.  If the user may not use a National Instruments product, they must be careful not to break the licensing agreement.  For more information, please go to our VISA License Information Page.

http://www.ni.com/visa/license

If you have any additional questions, please let me know and I will be happy to answer them.  Have a great day!

Chris R.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments