TESCOM ER5000 no connection (continued)

[tempVacco]

I'm attempting to connect to a TESCOM ER5000 with the manufacturer provided example code; the latest of these is from LabVIEW 2013.

I've verified COM and can communicate with the device through the manufacturer software, ERTune.

I've visited every forum post on the topic and all signs point to corrupt dll. I've extracted the dll from the provided CD, the website, and a direct link provided by TESCOM support. None of these solve the problem. 

I'm working from a Windows 10 PC 64-bit, I unfortunately cannot change machines to try a 32-bit.

Has anyone had luck with these devices since the last post in 2015? 

Attaching the example programs and here is a link to the TESCOM downloads: DOWNLOAD MANUAL AND SOFTWARE

[ChuckVersusTheVI]

We had a similar issue and no resolution, so if it's an option you could control the setpoint with an analog output card and live with ERTune to set everything else (gains, feedback mode, etc.). 

[tempVacco]

Thanks Chuck, yeah, we have a scheme to control with external voltage, but it seems like a manufacturer driver would be more efficient. Hopefully I can figure it out.

[rolfk]

The ER5000DLL.DLL is 32-bit. That doesn't mean that you have to use it on 32-bit Windows, but it can only be loaded into 32-bit LabVIEW. It seems to have no other dependencies than kernel32 and user32. So there should be no other reason why it can't be loaded.

It could be possible to control this device through VISA functions, with a proper protocol documentation.

Serial Port Parameters: 9600 Baud, 8 Databits, no Parity, 1 Stop Bit

But from a quick glance at the DLL itself, it seems to be a binary protocol with some intermediate byte shuffling in the routines, so not quite trivial to reverse engineer.

However from this document it states:

ER5000 Software Development Support
The ER5000 protocol document is provided to assist in developing process control software that communicates with
the ER5000 on any platform. Sample programs in VB.NET, LabVIEW, C and C# are available on the online manual along
with the source code for the ER5000 DLL for Windows.
The implementation of the protocol uses six functions to communicate: StartUp, ReadNetVar, WriteNetVar,
ReadProfileSegment, WriteProfileSegment and Shutdown.

So that "ER5000 protocol document" would seem to be the key to implement this communication directly on VISA in LabVIEW. Can't find the protocol document to look at. But found this forum post with a LabVIEW library that implements the Tescom protocol when connecting through RS-485 (and supposedly the USB connection is using a serial port too).

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/ER5000-Connection-to-cRIO/m-p/4192022