What additional resources are required to do the TestStand training courses I and II?

[Pat K]

I have the TestStand course manuals for courses I and II and am currently trying to refresh what I learned a couple of months ago when I took the courses.  I'm at the point where almost every VI required comes up broken because additional libraries are required in LabVIEW.  Why aren't the additional required libraries listed in the course documentation?  What are the additional libraries and how do I get them?

[EMR]

Hi there!

If I had to guess I would say that you're missing the TS support API libraries for LabVIEW... Since those are the only 'special' libraries used by any of the examples in the TestStand 3.x or 4.x training manuals.

I'm going to assume that you have some recent version of LabVIEW (8.x?) and some recent version of TestStand (3.x) installed? Unless you took the NI training course more than a few years ago, in which case you might need earlier version of TS, LabVIEW version really shouldn't matter. Evaluation copies ought to be sufficient so I wouldn't blame those... 

(If you don't have LabVIEW at all. Make sure you have the correct LabVIEW Run Time Engine version, as that's a pretty common source of TS errors... But without LabVIEW half of the exercises in the training manual are moot anyway...)

In your LabVIEW install path, (C:\ program files etc...\LabVIEW 8.x\)  look for the folder path "vi.lib\addons\TestStand\", it ought to be full of a few *.llb files that TS would furnish to LabVIEW when the product is installed.  Sometimes when you install things in an unexpected order, or if you have multiple LVs installed, these items don't get put where you expect.

If the folder is empty, copy what you need from... the TestStand install path (C:\ program files etc...\TestStand x.x\) folder "AdapterSupport\LabVIEW" and restart LV. This might get you up and running.

If the folder is not empty. Try running a MassCompile from your LabVIEW Tools ->Advanced menu, there might be a version incompatibility issue...

Feel free to send me an email if you're still stuck. But there aren't any external dependencies/hardware drivers needed for the TS training sequences...

Cheers!

--Elaine R.

www.bloomy.com

[Pat K]

Hello,

Thanks for the quick response.  I'm using TestStand 4.0 and LabVIEW 8.2.  So far the reason for the broken VIs has been because the IMAQ vision libraries have been missing.  I've installed NI-IMAQ 3.6 which installed some of the libraries but not all.  Currently "IMAQ Setup Match Geometric Pattern.VI" and "IMAQ Match Geometric Pattern.VI" are not being found.  Can you please tell me where to find these VIs?

[EMR]

 I've installed NI-IMAQ 3.6 which installed some of the libraries but not all.  Currently "IMAQ Setup Match Geometric Pattern.VI" and "IMAQ Match Geometric Pattern.VI" are not being found.  Can you please tell me where to find these VIs?

Rats! you're right! As you can tell I was thinking TS 3.x training... In TS 4.0 there _are_ NI Vision libraries that are required because of that CD Rom version test step and a few others. I forgot to mention that!  I apologize.   

if you've installed NI-IMAQ (3.7 is what most training centers are using currently, I believe) there ought to be a folder  under your LabVIEW directory for "vi.lib/vision/...." and the library in particular you seem to be missing is "PatternMatching.llb"   is this one of the missing ones from your install? (As a side-bar, you'll also need files1.llb, and Image Controls.llb, Basics.llb, Overlay.llb, ROI Conversion.llb, Analytic.llb, Measure.llb, and OCR.llb... pretty much the whole vision kit...) 

As you may have been told when you attended the lecture, the TS 4.0 books are brand new so I bet that the course designer didn't think to add a footnote to the book mentioning what 'extras' were needed. I'll pass the info along, as feedback if you don't! But for now lets see if we can't figure out which libraries you have and where they come from.

--Elaine R.

www.bloomy.com

[Pat K]

Thanks Elaine,

Here is a list of the library files in the Vision folder:

Avi1.llb
Avi2.llb
Basics.llb
DatatypeConversion.llb
Display.llb
Files.llb
Files1.llb
Image Controls.llb
Image Display Controls.llb
IMAQRT.llb
IMAQRTCompatibility.llb
Overlay.llb
ROI Display.llb
Tools Menu.llb

It does look like I'm missing a couple that you named.

[EMR]

I've got good news and bad news, from the look of it!

You're going to need the NI Vision Development Module for Windows Vista/XP/2000 (see link)

https://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/product/vision-development-module.html

The good news is that you can install a free evaluation version to use it for practice with TS. The bad news is that I can't find a convenient link online to the evaluation version for download at the moment. You may need to call your regional sale's guy and ask to borrow his disk. Or call NI's sales number and have them send you an evaluation CD.  The CD contents is a bit too big for me to zip and post here.

Hope this helps!

[EMR]

Found Eval version! (didn't look in the right spot)

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/367/lang/en 

[Pat K]

Thanks for your help Elaine,

If I remember correctly, when I took the TestStand courses LabVIEW 8.2.1 was on the systems we used.  The version of NI-IMAQ that goes with LabView 8.2.1 is NI-IMAQ 3.7.  I was going to try installing NI-IMAQ 3.7, but our IT department has blocked downloading ZIP files.  I have a request for them to download it for me, then I'll give it a try.  Hopefully the libraries I'm missing are in NI-IMAQ 3.7.  I've found the evaluation version of Vision Development Module Version 8.2 for Windows 2000/XP and am attempting to download it.  If I'm still having problems, I'll let you know.