how to recover the devices present in MAX, with CVI ???

[Jeff70]

Hello

I would like to know if it's possible to recover the device present in MAX, to generate an device explorer with CVI. ( with device tree and the parameters for all devices )

Thank you.

(afflicted for the faults English is not my language !)

[cosmo]

Hi Jeff,
I don't think you will find exactly what you may be looking for. MAX is just a central place to configure and diagnostically monitor your hardware. Each type of hardware has independent configuration rules, and in many cases you can't even export a complete hardware configuration into a single file that could be read by your program.

Now, if you know certain things about what you have independently configured in MAX, you may be able to monitor and change (some) settings for each type of hardware using that hardware's own instrument library or native communications language. It certainly won't be as simple as perhaps it should be. For example, I use lots of FieldPoint with MAX. I can't programatically read or write to my MAX .iak file. If I know all of the bank names (because I enter them into the registry) I can communicate with them using LOGOS (FieldPoint specific communications), but you would agree that this is not automatic.

LabView is supposed to have some capabilities to interact with MAX, but in general terms I don't think CVI can. What specific hardware are you dealing with? Maybe someone on the board knows some tricks that are specific to your type of hardware, that will atleast get you close to what you are after.

Good luck,
Orlan

[Jeff70]

Hello,

First of all thank you Cosmo.
And as regards the peripherals which are used, it's DAQ type.
For DAQmx that should be possible, but for CAN card and traditional DAQ nothing ?
Then if someone can help me, I thank him.

thank you, bye.

[Benjamin_C]

MAX does ship with a small ActiveX controller that has a limited number of methods and properties that can be used. Unfortunately, the MAX Viewer was designed for internal use, by NI products, only. Because of this, this control is not advertised to customers as an extra feature and is not officially supported; therefore, there is no documentation to help clarify the methods and properties.

If there is a particular application that you need it for or a specific action you are trying to accomplish then feel free to let us know and we will see if there is another option available to us.

Regards,

[cosmo]

Hi Ben,
I certainly would be interested in knowing about the FieldPoint channel configuration capabilities of this MAX Active-X control. I think Jeff would be interested in hearing something similar perhaps for traditional DAQ and CAN.

I have asked NI for something in CVI to help with configuring FP channels for 5 years. There was nothing in FieldPoint Explorer (before it was part of MAX), and no one appeared to know what is possible now that FP is part of MAX. You are the first person to reveal this Active-X control's existence.
It takes me over an hour to setup a large FieldPoint installation, and it isn't always reliable to get a guy who turns wrenches all day to setup new channels when I'm not around. What kind of configuration export functions (to .txt or similar) does it have, if any? The configuration files for various types of hardware aren't even related sometimes. You have .IAK for FP, .DAQ for SCXI, etc. The .IAK file is binary, so I can't even parse it. I keep some of the information in a database, but it would be nice if I could read that database and merge the data into the .IAK file programatically.

Thanx for your interest, 😆
Orlan

[bilalD]

For DAQmx , you can use functions like DAQmxGetSystemInfoAttribute() and DAQmxGetDeviceAttribute() to give you info about the devices installed and some information associated with the device. This might be one place to start looking to see if this satisfies your requirements.

[biker2000]

For NI-CAN, you can use the ncGetHardwareInfo() function (documented in the Frame API section of the NI-CAN Hardware and Software Manual). That function can return the number of cards in the system and more detailed information for a given card (number of ports, form factor, serial number, etc.).

-B2k

[cosmo]

DAQmx supports a lot of popular SCXI if you convert it to MX, but there are a few SCXI legacy that it doesn't support. In those cases, you have to use the older 6.9 system or an even much older traditional system. My experience with SCXI is that it is 'nuke-proof', so it is easy to get devices that become legacy--because they almost never break. 😆
DAQmx doesn't seem to support the CAN stuff, so I guess that you have to use the CAN functions that B2k mentioned. DAQmx certainly doesn't support any of the FieldPoints (compact or original). I know that I can do some querying of FP with Logos, but both of these are like I mentioned originally, hardware specific methods to get information because MAX won't help you.

Orlan

Message Edited by cosmo on 06-10-2005 10:26 AM