Using Instrument Drivers in LabVIEW Application

[trooper64]

I have created a LabVIEW program that works with both the NI cDAQ-9174, as well as a Keysight 34461A DMM machine. I turned the program into a .exe file and placed it on another PC. This other PC has both the NI DAQ runtime and LabVIEW runtime engines installed, and can open the EXE no problem. When clicking buttons on the EXE that would access my connected instruments (the DMM or cDAQ-9174), however, the program freezes up. Do I have to put the Keysight drivers on this new machine, and if so how would I do that exactly if I am just running a .exe file? The Keysight drivers are purely plug and play, so on the original machine I just dropped them into my .libr folder.

Thanks for your help!

[BertMcMahan]

Do the Keysight function calls have a dll they need? If so they will need to be in the same folder as the executable on the target machine. If they're a serial based thing, they may need NI VISA drivers installed.

[RTSLVU]

You should not need to install any Keysite drivers as the VI's are compiled into your EXE.

But you probably do need NI-VISA and maybe NI-488.2 and DAQ-MX installed

[Kyle97330]

Did you make sure that your program uses a working address or alias for your hardware on the new PC?  If you have a constant VISA address or DAQ name programmed in that doesn't match from one PC to another, it could cause something like this.

[RTSLVU]

 Kyle97330 has a good point. You will need to install the FULL NI-VISA so you also get NI-MAX.

Then you will have to setup any VISA aliases and instruments in NI-MAX the same as your development system 

[BertMcMahan]

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@RTSLVU wrote:

 Kyle97330 has a good point. You will need to install the FULL NI-VISA so you also get NI-MAX.

Then you will have to setup any VISA aliases and instruments in NI-MAX the same as your development system 

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AFAIK you don't *have* to have MAX installed to run VISA if you're not using custom setups and aliases. Picking a COM port in the program works fine without needing to use MAX.

[RTSLVU]

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@BertMcMahan wrote:

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@RTSLVU wrote:

 Kyle97330 has a good point. You will need to install the FULL NI-VISA so you also get NI-MAX.

Then you will have to setup any VISA aliases and instruments in NI-MAX the same as your development system 

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AFAIK you don't *have* to have MAX installed to run VISA if you're not using custom setups and aliases. Picking a COM port in the program works fine without needing to use MAX.

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Yes, but I was talking about programs that use a VISA Alias for an instrument, also didn't the OP say he was using a NI cDAQ-9174? Aren't some things like scales setup in NI-MAX for these?

[BertMcMahan]

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@RTSLVU wrote:

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@BertMcMahan wrote:

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@RTSLVU wrote:

 Kyle97330 has a good point. You will need to install the FULL NI-VISA so you also get NI-MAX.

Then you will have to setup any VISA aliases and instruments in NI-MAX the same as your development system 

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AFAIK you don't *have* to have MAX installed to run VISA if you're not using custom setups and aliases. Picking a COM port in the program works fine without needing to use MAX.

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Yes, but I was talking about programs that use a VISA Alias for an instrument, also didn't the OP say he was using a NI cDAQ-9174? Aren't some things like scales setup in NI-MAX for these?

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Yes, aliasing would be a good reason to install MAX. As far as scales go, you can set them up there if you'd like, but I never do. I set up the scales with the DAQmx primitives within LabVIEW. That way none of my users have to worry about MAX configs or anything.

While most of my installers do include MAX (for in-house stuff) it's for my own use debugging the systems down the road. Otherwise MAX never gets touched.

[trooper64]

Thank you for all the replies! As far as the Keysight DMM is concerned: the other PC running my program can detect the instrument through a dropdown and lists it as "USB:..." which makes me think it's working properly. The other PC cannot detect the cDAQ-9174 unit, however. Is the only thing I'm missing here then just NI MAX? 

[BertMcMahan]

NI MAX is the interface to be able to poke around and configure devices, but it's not 100% necessary. I think you're missing the NI VISA drivers.

Try creating an installer for your executable, then in the "create installer" dialog box tell it to auto-detect required runtime engines. It should pick up VISA if you need it.

If you want MAX as well, install the "...with configuration support" runtime engine. I can't remember if that's under DAQmx or NI-VISA, but it's one of the two. "Configuration support" is code for NI-MAX. Run that installer and it should get you what you need.

Additionally, if you don't want to use an installer, create the spec for one anyway and tell it to auto-detect required runtime engines. It'll give you a list you can use to download them from NI's website.