VISTA and Serial Port Support

[nealpederson]

Has anyone successfully used Windows VISTA with a LabVIEW application that
uses the serial port? If so, what version of LabVIEW did you use and have
you used a built LabVIEW application?



I tried installing and running an application that was built in LabVIEW 7.0
that uses the serial port but I kept getting an error when it tried to
initialize the serial port. I know that LabVIEW 7.0 does not officially
support VISTA but I have other much more complicated applications that use
LabVIEW 7.0 with USB DAQ devices that work fine so I know my problem has to
do with serial port support.



I'd like to find out if I can solve my problem by compiling my application
with a later version of LabVIEW or if I need to wait for NI to release a new
serial driver and/or a new update to LabVIEW that supports serial on VISTA.
NI tech support could not give me a clear answer to this question so I
thought I'd try here.



Thanks in advance, Neal

[Roland A.]

Hello Neal:

Thank you for contacting National Instruments. NI-VISA version 4.1 has Vista support.

[nealpederson]

Roland, my VISTA computer already had NI-VISA 4.1 so I tried updating my
development computer from NI-VISA 4.0 to NI-VISA 4.1. I then recompiled my
application and installed it on the VISTA computer but it did not help.
What else could fix the problem?

[Roland A.]

Hello Neal:

Do you have VISA 4.1 on the development machine? If not, try installing VISA 4.1 on the machine, which you are building your application, then building the application.

[nealpederson]

Yes, that's what I said I did yesterday. It did not fix the problem.

[Nick_D]

Hey Neal,

I had one quick question, did you try to run the application in admistrator mode? and also in Windows XP compatiblity mode? You should be able to reach these options by right clicking on the executables? Also, when installing the drivers, did you install the drivers by right clicking on them, and running those in administrator mode as-well? Sometimes you'll run into problems because with compatibility mode, and administrator mode, you need to use those to make sure the file locations coordinate.

Regards,

Nick D.

[nealpederson]

Nick,

I just tried running it in administrator mode and in Windows XP compatiblity
mode but neither made any difference.

I can't remember for sure but I believe I had to select administrator mode
when installing the drivers. My serial program installs serial support
automatically but I have also installed NI-DAQ 8.5 on this VISTA computer.

Here's another problem I've had lately on XP computers: If I install NI-DAQ
8.5 for another program I need my program that uses the serial port no
longer works with the serial port. This has been true on several computers
but a couple of computers that happened to have LabVIEW on them didn't have
the problem but did have a problem with a Belkin RS232/USB converter where
the program went 5x slower than normal. NI-DAQ 8.5 installs VISA 4.1 and
there is a good chance that this is causing the problem. It is possible
that VISA 4.1 is causing the problem on my VISA computer too.

[Nick_D]

Hey Neal,

Can you try to uninstall the drivers, and then re-install them with the compatibility mode enabled. Since so many files are working together, they should all be executed in the same fashion so that when the programs interact with each other, it's in the same family tree of folders. So everything in both administrator, and XP compatibility.

Regards,

Nick D.

[nealpederson]

Nick,

Normally I just install one application that also installs serial support.
Is this all I need to uninstall and re-install? Also, how do I install with
"compatibility mode enabled"?

I also happen to have NI-DAQ 8.5 installed on this machine which, as I
mentioned, installed VISA 4.1 along with MAX and all the other stuff you
need when you use DAQ. My applications that use USB DAQ work fine so do I
need to change anything with this driver installation?

Important note on my serial application: This is an application for a
product that has hundreds in existence and more and more are sold every day
so it is very important that I create an easy installation process that will
work on Windows XP and Windows VISTA.

[nealpederson]

I think I found a solution to my problem:

Previously I used port names like COM1 in my program. I tried using
ASRL1::INSTR and my application appears to be working. Did VISA 4.1 change
the ability to use COMn for the name?