Porting From Measurement Studio 6.0/CVI

[Steve_VSE]

I have an old project with source that I'd like to port to a new computer & version of LabWindows.  The help screen says "Measurement Studio Version 6.0" and "LabWindows/CVI" Version 6.0.0 (105).  Do I need to purchase both the Measurement Studio and LabWindows?  The tool is controlling a PCI-4060 DMM and a PCI-6527 and an interface to VME via MXI-2 boards.  Are there any gotchas I need to be aware of when attempting to port a 20 year old program?

Thanks!
Steve Buchholz

[RobertoBozzolo]

Making a 20-years jump in a single step is very challenging! I can offer you some preliminary considerations, rather than an exhaustive answer to your question.

Let's start from the hardware: a PCI bus is very hard to find nowadays so you'll have very lmited options -if any- if you want to renew the PC that is running the application. You're not telling us which OS you are using at the moment, but if you're not replacing the PC you are limted in how recent an IDE you can install on your PC.

So: what are you planning to do with your hardware? This is a very critical question since it may heavily influence your choices on the software side and in my opinion is the first item to discuss in your project.

[Steve_VSE]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond!

The primary goal is to migrate an existing tool, which is based on Windows XP to a modern, supported OS.  We can build a custom PC, I've requested our IT group to determine if a W10 PC can be built with the requisite 3 PCI slots.  The current XP PC is made by Advantech, and it looks like the same motherboard is manufactured.  I just checked the Advantech site, and it looks like I could buy a replacement "Slot SBC" that plugs into the existing passive backplane and supports W10

My primary concern is whether or not the current LabWindows/CVI environment still supports the NI-DMM (PCI-4060) and the MXI-2 interface to a VME cardcage.  The third board is a PCI-6527.  

It appears that the existing system has both LabWindows/CVI and Measurement Studio 6.0 and the current NI implementation has these sold separately.  How do I determine whether or not both tools are required.  There is not currently any other C language compilers on the system, so I suspect the Measurement Studio is not needed.  

Thanks again for your time!

Steve Buchholz

[RobertoBozzolo · Accepted solution]

Analyzing the porting of your application you can find this page useful:

NI Hardware and Operating System Compatibility 

It appears that the 6527 is currently supported by the latest DAQmx driver while the 4060 not, but I can see additional problems in your situation.

If your application is based upon Traditional Daq, then you must be warned tht it this driver is obsolete and it is no more supported on 64-bit systems. A bit of documentation can be found here: Traditional NI-DAQ (Legacy) Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 10 Support . You can find additional informations on ni site by searching for "Traditional DAQ", but be warned that this driver is considered oblosete so you'll be mostly alone in the process of porting your application. NI-DMM on the other hand is currently under development, but the 4060 appears not to be supported by the latest release so you may need to reverse back to the latest release that declares 4060 support.

Coming to the software side, I seem to remember that CVI and Measurement Studio came in a single package back in 6.0 days, sou may have the alleter installed just because it was available but not used at all. This dows not appear in the CVI project, but if there are no aother compilers on your machine you can probably extrapolate CVI only was used (unless the app was compiled on another machine and installed on yours).

As you can see your requirements are not an easy goal to accomplish! What I can suggest it to find a 32-bit machine, download and install Traditional Daq, NI-DMM and some "old" version of CVI (2017, 2015 or 2012, depending on TDaq documentation) and try setting up the environment so that it at least compile the software without errors. This may not be an easy task as I wasn't able to find a donwload link for TDaq 😮 but you may be luckier spending some tome more on ni site 😏

[RobertoBozzolo]

I post this in a new message since it is a completely different point of view. The basic question, after considering all the constraints you are bound to in reviving an old application, is: is it worth the effort?

That is to say: if you have the appropriate skills you may obtain better results renewing the hardware to the closest equivalents currently available and switching to the latest drivers and IDE. The purchase cost for the hardware may be comparable to the time needed to setup the appropriate hardware and software tools required by the existing boards... which are 20-years old with an unpredictable operating life in front of them!

[Steve_VSE]

Thanks again for your perspective on this.  

The system is an existing system, created by another company which is used to test a number of assemblies that were first manufactured long ago and are yet still being manufactured.  I don't have much in the way of flexibility ... or budget, so whatever new development that is done will need to work with the existing interfaces.  It so happens that these old NI modules are still available, some are even available as NOS.  

It is sounding as though my best hopes would be with sticking with the 32-bit OS.  I'll read through the links you provided.

Thanks again!

Steve

[RobertoBozzolo]

DAQmx was released in 2003: I seriously doubt that it is used in your system. In any case you should have some driver for your boards installed in the system. If they have installed MAX you can open it and let it list installed software for you: what is now called Traditional DAQ was called NI-DAQ at the time.

If the system is based upon TDaq, 32-bit is your unique option, since that old driver is not supported on 64-bit systems.