Fixes/Upgrades/Service Packs Available?

[palley]

Are there upgrades/fixes available for Measurement Studio 7.0 Enterprise Edition? I purchased my copy about 6 months ago.
I am experiencing several serial communications problems and want to make sure that I have the latest versions.
I am specifically trying to communicate thru a Lava Octopus 550 8-port serial card (although I do experience problems with other configurations).
If there is no general update available, how do I find out if this card is supported.

[Elton Wells]

For hardware APIs, there are driver CD updates every quarter. The driver CD has regular updates for underlying drivers, and may have updated Measurement Studio libraries, depending on the quarter and the hardware component. There have been a few driver CD releases since Measurement Studio 7.0 shipped.

Also, Measurement Studio 7.1 will be available very soon. I'm not sure exactly when, but it should be within the next month.

- Elton

[Glenn Burnside]

While we do have updates to hardware API's quarterly on the driver CD, we have not had any changes related to serial I/O. Can you elaborate some on the kind of problems you're encountering? Since you're communicating through a serial port device, I assume you're using VISA - are you using the C++ API or the .NET API?

[palley]

I am currently experiencing two specific problems using VISA from within a .NET C# application:
1) I am getting "framing error" on every attempt to read responses from a specific piece of hardware via the serial port. The problem happens on the read of the first character and may or may not result in the loss of the first or the first few characters in the expected response. Other applications (Procomm-like apps and even a Labview app) running through the same comm port don't seem to have a problem reading those responses. The port settings (baud rate, parity, ..) are correct. Can you suggest a strategy for understanding the origin of framing errors and how to handle them to recover good data?
2) Another type of problem is that I do not seem to be able to
communicate through the ports of a particular multi-port card (Lava Octopus 550) at all. Separate tests using Hyperterminal within the card's ports and between the test machine and others indicate proper operation at the same settings. Does the VISA serial port drivers have any known problems with multi-serial port cards?

[JoshuaP]

Hey palley,

I will start off by addressing your second question first. NI-VISA does not have a problem working with multi-serial port cards. NI sells several devices with multiple serial ports, which all work with NI-VISA. However, it is possible that your card implements things differently than the native serial ports. NI-VISA relies on your serial cards supporting all of the functionality found in the built-in native serial ports on your computer. If you can give us more information about what is not working and perhaps some NI-SPY logs of you trying to run one of the example programs we might be able to find a work around.

To address your first question, I would like to see two NI-SPY logs of you running a very simple LabVIEW and .NE
T program that are performing the same operation. It would be best if the applications were wrote so that one port is opened, then you write once, read once, and then close the port and exit the application. We can then compare the two applications and see what is happening. It would also help if you could provide the source code for the two.

I hope this helps out. Perhaps you will be able to tell between the SPY captures what is happening. Otherwise, just post the information (spy files and source code) to the forum and we can try to help out.

-JoshuaP

[palley]

Thanks for your response.
Concerning the first question, I found a workaround by installing a USB-to-serial port adapter and connecting through it. The framing errors and the loss of the first character of responses disappeared. I will put this issue on the back burner and keep your suggestions at hand if I return to it.
Concerning the second question: Please suggest a specific example program suitable for Measurement Studio 7.0 using the .NET API.
Thanks

[Glenn Burnside]

The SimpleReadWrite example program that ships with the VISA .NET API is a good example of simple I/O.