Serial will not connect unless MAX has been started

[CB]

Hello All,

I am using Labview 7.0 , MAX 4.6.0f1, NI-VISA 3.0, Windows XP. A Microchip PIC USB device is attached to the Labview PC, the PIC embedded code registers as a Virtual Serial port and behaves as expected, I use Labview to read and writes simple fames of text.

I found I can communicate ok with the device and need to create a distributable Application, this is where I have found problems. I installed the application on a different machine but I don't see any serial COM x text in the serial drop down list. I was expecting similar function to the device manager which enumerates serial ports on the fly (including the PIC i am using)

Having read a few posts  it looks like I need VISA runtime. I thought I was including this in my application as I selected, Tools > Build Application>Installer Settings> Create Installer X > Advanced > Serial Port Support. The only thing that seems to make the application pick up the serial ports is to run MAX first. I would prefer not to force users (15 to  20) to install MAX and then have the Labview automate a MAX startup when the program is started. This seems a bit clunky.

Advice appreciated

Thanks Chris

[Jamie_S.]

Hi Chris

I'm Jamie, an Applications Engineer at National Instruments, thank you for your forum post.

Although ticking the "Serial Port Support" checkbox installs the serial portion of NI-VISA it does not include the MAX configuration file, therefore MAX needs to be run to detect the serial port along with the specific Hardware Configuration of your development machine (i.e. the serial port configuration in MAX).

This can be included in the installer by ticking "Hardware Configuration" in:

"Tools">"Build Application">"Installer Settings">"Create Installer X" >"Advanced"

Followed by selecting the "Configure" button and following the steps to include the serial port configuration.

[Jamie_S.]

Hi Chris

I'm Jamie, an Applications Engineer at National Instruments, thank you for your forum post.

Ticking "Serial Port Support" only installs the serial portion of NI-VISA, you need to include the full NI-VISA 3.0.1 installer with your own installer and also include your development machine "Hardware Configuration" by following the steps below:

- Download NI-VISA 3.0.1 here

- Include your Development machine serial port configuration (Tools > Build Application > Installer Settings > Create Installer X > Advanced > Hardware Configuration > Configure)

- Include the NI-VISA 3.0.1 installer downloaded previously with your installer following the steps outlined here

Hopefully this assists with your application Chris, please keep me informed with your progress.

Many Thanks

[CB]

Hello Jamie,

Thankyou for the responce, I have tried ( and tried ) to get this to work without success so far.  I downloaded NI visa301full.exe and followed the instructions regarding the batch.bat file however when I finally got the visa install popup to appear it progresses to the progress bar window, the progress bar fills to about 30% for 1 of 16 then removes the progress, waits a few seconds then part fill the progress bar again, and repeats over and over till I cancel. After some reading I noticed the batch file is only needed for multiple exe install so I removed the batch file and have been trying to call the visa301full.exe directly to make things simpler.

I tried manually installing the visa301full.exe and this worked fine, so at least I can see my application and visa301full.exe working together when they are installed. Ive attached my build file as hopefully Ive done something daft there. I think its probably nearly there, I appreciate your help and advice.

Regards Chris

[Jamie_S. · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris,

Apologies for the delay in my response, I had to reinstall LabVIEW 7.0 on an older machine.

Tested including visa301.exe with a simple installer using the same procedure as in your ".bld" file and experienced the same issue where the VISA installer restarted. To resolve this issue I had to untick the "Wait Until Done" checkbox in the "Advanced Installer Settings" this allowed both the application and the driver to install correctly.

Hopefully this assists with your LabVIEW 7.0 installer build Chris, please keep me informed with your progress.

Many Thanks

[CB]

Hello Jamie,

Yes thats done it. Excellent help from you, very many thanks. I can compile so the Labview installs first then NI VISA, the only slight issue is that with the "wait until done" unchecked, once the Labview app is installed a "You must restart..." popup appears and remains for the rest of the NI VISA install process however I can live with that.

Appreciate your help with this particularly taking the time to install an old ver of  Labview.

Regards

Chris