Upgrade LabVIEW 5.1.1 to 7.1

[Larry Junek]

We are considering an upgrade of a large amount of code from LabVIEW 5.1.1 to 7.1, and at the same time upgrading the OS from Windows NT4 to either W2K Pro or XP.

Before we do this, I am documenting all of the potential problems and risks we may encounter when performing this upgrade that could cause broken arrows and negatively affect program behavior, performance or introduce / uncover bugs in the code.

Please reply directly to larry4882@yahoo.com with any comments, thoughts or experiences you've had when upgrading LabVIEW.

Thank You!

[Dennis_Knutson]

Could you provide some details on the hardware that you're using? For example, daq boards, GPIB, serial comm? The risks involved depend a lot on that. For example, the latest version of NI-DAQ does not have support for some of the older boards. As another example, NI no longer supports the old serpdrv. All serial communication is done with VISA. In most cases, the conversion is transparent but I have heard of people having problems.

[S.S. Minnow]

We are currently attempting the same thing at my company but have hit some snags. This also happened when we originally updated the VI's from v3.0 to v5.1. We were able to correct the bugs that the change caused and now must do so again. An example of a problem we are currently attempting to correct is as follows:

We use a base VI and load all of the data taken in the field into it. From here we have the option of using one of four sub-VI's to interpret the data. In order for it to work, we set the base VI to constantly run. When we choose the desired sub-VI it displays. Unfortunately, the program freezes at this point. We lose the ability to work in the sub-VI's as well as the close them to get back to the base VI. If we try to merely switch windows, the sub-VI that froze everything pops infront immediately. Also, when we look at the computer memory usage it is maxed out at 100%. The only thing we can do is end the entire LabView program.

Hopefully someone out there can help us both

[mikeporter]

There are a lot of reasons why this sort of thing could be happening--like a latent race condition that you only find running a different version with different performance characteristics. If you could post some of your code I'd be glad to look at it for you.

Mike...

[mikeporter]

The difficult you'll have is directly related to how well your code is written. My advice is to start with small bits and convert the functionality one piece at a time. Personally I wouldn't be too concerned about the 100% G parts of the code, but be careful any place you do things like access DLLs or ActiveX objects.

(Of course, you could put a copy of your code on an isolated machine and just go for it. BONZI!!!! If you get into too big a mess you drop everything and go back and do the "one thing at a time" approach...)

Mike...

[Larry Junek]

My main concern is that this is an upgrade of several major versions - from 5.1.1 to 7.1
These are the major instruments in the system:
Instrument OEM Model Number
Scanning A/D Converter, 16bit,VT1413C VXI Technologies VT1413C
VXI - 128CH Discrete I/O Kinetic Systems VXI BUS - V387
VXI - 64CH Isolated Input, 28V Kinetic Systems VXI BUS - V387
VXI - Octal Tachometer
Octal Synchro/Digital, 14bit
VXI-AO-48XDC VXI Module National Instruments VXI-AO-48XDC
1260-45A Freedom W/01T Matrix Racal 1260-45A
1260-16 High Current Switch Racal 1260-16
PCB ASSY, 1260-117 Racal 1260-117
PCB ASSY, 1260-145B, 3 4x12 Racal 1260-145B
Vibration Monitor/Analyzer Trig Tek 667B
VXI 1553A/B Dual Channel Mod
Universal Counter Racal 2461C
Waveform Generator Racal