Measurement Studio for .NET Languages topics

Save Measurement Studio Waveform graph as a file to playback later

djcoburn — Fri, 24 May 2013 15:06:32 GMT

Hi,

I'd like to see if there's an easier way to save the data that's been rendered on a waveform graph (configured as a strip chart) than capturing the incoming data in code and sending copies of it to a file. It would be nice if there was a method to do this, with all the relevant metadata saved in the file (color, etc). Even better, the file then could be opened in a labview application (such as a TDMS file.) for later review.

thanks.

ps. i'm using VS2010 and MS 2010.

c# VISANS serialsession.query() help

jgreenberg — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:44:06 GMT

Hi all,

I'm writing a class library to facilitate communication with instruments utilizing the Modbus Application Protocol that are connected to a NI cRIO-9073 via a serial-to-ethernet cable plugged into an NI 9870 DAQ card that is plugged into the cRIO. The specific instrument I am talking to is an MKS Optitemp Heat Exchanger, which uses the RTU serial transmission mode (http://modbus.org/docs/PI_MBUS_300.pdf).

I've been successful in communicating with it, using the Query(byte[] dataToWrite, int countToRead) method of the SerialSession class inherited from the MessageBasedSession class. However, I need to specify the exact number of bytes to read, or else I get the following VisaException:

"Timeout expired before operation completed. VISA error code -1073807339 (0xBFFF0015), ErrorTimeout"

Unfortunately, I don't always know how many bytes the Query is going to return. Namely, if the slave returns an error, the response is fewer bytes than expected, throwing the above exception. I want to be able to recover the details of the error message for debugging purposes, but right now am stuck with just reporting a generic error message if a VisaException is caught.

I've tried the Query( byte[] dataToWrite) overload, but that results in a timeout every time. The Modbus RTU protocol specifies that each message be terminated with "a silent interval of at least 3.5 character time", and I don't know how to set the SerialSession.TerminationCharacter property to reflect this.

Is there a way I can read the bytes already in the buffer, even if the buffer isn't completely filled?

The only workaround I can think of is sending the same query multiple times, each time incrementing the countToRead by 1, but there must be a better way.

Thanks,

Joe

Show color scale axis with Graph and IntensityRenderer

cbgapac — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:11:41 GMT

When using the IntensityGraph, the z scale is represented by a color scale legend which is shown on screen. We are using the Graph control for more flexibility as recommended in the documentation. How do we show the color scale for the z axis legend on screen like the IntensityGraph does?

WPF graph display point value on hover

jsacks — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:52:17 GMT

Hello,

Is there an easy way to display the value of a point (with similar formatting to a Cursor) when hovering the mouse over the point? I'm using the WPF graph control (MStudio 2013) with multiple plots graphed on an AxisDouble.(y axis) and AxisPrecisionDateTime (x axis). Let me know if you need any more information and thanks in advance.

DAQ assistent is not showing when starting a new project in Visual Studio 8 with Measurement Studio

Hartholt — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:14:12 GMT

Hi,

I have installed a system with the following configuration:

Windows 7 Prof

NI MAX

Visual Studio 2008 Standard

Measurement Studio 2013(evaluation)

NI Device Drivers Feb 2013

When I start a new project in Visual Studio, I can choose a template with NI Windows forms application. After this I get an overview of the classes, but after this I get no DAQ assistent. What I also miss is the actual references in the toolbox, except the knobs and graphs from NI.

Has someone a solution for this issue?

Thanks in advance,

Erik

Implement watch dog for USB 6251

ediorz — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:23:23 GMT

Hi,

I am pretty new to NI DAQmx and USB 6251 so I might be asking a question that has a obvious answer here....(also if I should post this question somewhere else please let me know)

I am trying to implement a watch dog timer that will trigger a digital output (static or waveform) to a signal light when it expired

From the spec for USB 6251, I can see that it does not have a built in watch dog timer that I can use..

Therefore, is it possible to implement my own watch dog timer (hardware not software) with this device??

I am programming using C# .NET 4.0 (without measurement Studio so I am only using the library provided) which I can see the methods for watch dog but cannot use due to hardware spec..

Maybe my best thing to do is buy another model that has a built in watchdog timer??

Thanks in advance,

Edward

[WPF]Problem using graph in a tabcontrol

darkeria — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:49:31 GMT

Hi,all.

I'm using a TabControl to display two viewmodels in one graph. Both viewmodels contain a ObservableCollection<ChartCollection<double, double>> type datasource. Datasource I contains two ChartCollection, and datasource II contains one. The problem is when I switch the tabitem from I to II, the second plot generated by datasource I can still be seen in the graph. What can I do to solve that?

Thank you very much for your help!~

C# binaryformatter.serialize without header?

Penny — Sun, 19 May 2013 02:09:29 GMT

Hi there,

I have a USB 5232 digitizer and am streaming data to disk based on the N.I. shipping example "StreamToDisk.cs". The streaming is going great. The problem is that I need to read the resulting data file on a Linux platform in c++. So I am trying to decipher the format of the file. It seems to have a header at the top of the file that we may be able to live with, but would prefer not to. The data are streamed like this:

binaryFormatter.Serialize(fileStream, records[0].GetScaledData());

which produces a file full of double precision floating points preceded by a header. If we try

binaryFormatter.Serialize(fileStream, records[0].GetScaledData(), null);

we seem to get the same file with the same header.

Would anyone happen to know if we can stream just the data by itself, without the header? Or, if we have to have the header, can someone tell me what is in it? I am attaching an example of one of our data files to this post with a ".txt" extension even though it is binary. Thanks for any thoughts.

Regards,

Penny

WPF Legend Item Mouse Event

jsacks — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:17:39 GMT

Hi,

Is there a way to attach a mouse click handler to individual items in a WPF Legend control?

I added the event handler to the Legend itself, but the handler only gets called when I click outside of an actual item in the Legend. The toggle buttons themselves don't seem to trigger the callback. What I'm trying to do is hide non-primary axes when their corresponding plot is hidden by clicking on the toggle button in the legend.

For reference, this is what I tried:

<ni:Legend Name="_legend" BorderThickness="0" MouseUp="_legend_MouseUp">

Any help is appreciated.

CW Button in Visual Studio 2010?

SnellyUSA — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:13:16 GMT

I used to use the CW button control in VB6 applications, which gave me momentary/maintained buttons. These were used to emulate a control panel and worked great.

Measurement Studio 2010 no longer has the button control, which I think is a great loss for any application development.

Is there a way of using the CW.button control in 2010?

Does any version of measurement studio, compatible with VS2010 C#, have similar button components?

Interpolate every pixel on IntensityGraph (WPF)

cbgapac — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:24:01 GMT

The IntensityGraph appears to be interpolating pixel color for every point along the X axis, but not along the Y axis. How can I achieve this? I was previously using the CWGraph3D which did this automatically, but we can no longer support the ActiveX control in this application.

MultiPlotCursor Formatting

jsacks — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:33:26 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to format a MultiPlotCursor for a graph with multiple plots on an AxisDouble and an AxisPrecisionDateTime. Here is a basic version of my xaml:

        <ni:Graph>
            <ni:Graph.Axes>
                <ni:AxisDouble x:Name="_yAxis" Orientation="Vertical" MinorDivisions="{x:Null}"/>
                <ni:AxisPrecisionDateTime x:Name="_xAxis" Orientation="Horizontal" Label="Time"/>
            </ni:Graph.Axes>
            <ni:Graph.Children>
                <ni:MultiPlotCursor Name="_mpCursor" Visibility="Hidden" TargetBrush="Red">
                    <ni:MultiPlotCursor.ValuePresenter>
                        <ni:ValueFormatterGroup>
                            <ni:ValueFormatterGroup.DefaultFormatter>
                                <ni:GeneralValueFormatter Format="0.00"/>
                            </ni:ValueFormatterGroup.DefaultFormatter>
                        </ni:ValueFormatterGroup>
                    </ni:MultiPlotCursor.ValuePresenter>
                </ni:MultiPlotCursor>
            </ni:Graph.Children>
        </ni:Graph>

The GeneralValueFormatter seems to be trying to apply the 0.00 format to both x and y points, however this isn't a valid format for PrecisionDateTime objects.

What I want is something like:

Format="yy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss, 0.00"

When I have this as my format however, it tries to apply this format to both x and y values, which ends up looking something like: "13-05-14 14:32:20, 0.00, yy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss, 60.41".

How can I set the format of this cursor to properly show the PrecisionDateTime and double values?

Thanks for your help.

Create install application containing daq drivers using vs2010 set to run on framework 2.0

marcblock — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:10:13 GMT

In our lab we are creating our applications in Measurement Studio. We want to create a very user friendly self contained install package that we can give to our customers. We have been creating our install packages in Measurement Studio using Microsoft Installer. We also just purchase a copy of install Shield 2013 Spring Express edition.

One of problems that we have been having is how to incorporate MAX. My hope was that Install Shield would have been smart enough to grab all of the NI dependent DLL. Unfortunately Install Shield only automatically grabs the Microsoft DLLs. When install Max on computer in the shop we have to answer several questions and then when the drivers are being install we are constantly get messages that take the downloading off line.

Do you know of any preferred method to install Max without Max asking a lot of questions and also would turnoff all of the warning messages. Again we want our customers to have a positive download experience.

Thanks for any information

Our application is written in Visual Studio 2010 and it was written to target framework 2.0

Measurement Studio support for combinations and permutations?

menchar — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:35:33 GMT

Does MS provide anything that will generate combinations of a collection of items?

E.g. generate all combinations of a set of N items taken K at a time (AKA an "N Choose K algorithm").

If we have a list of 5 integers { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 } and we want 5 choose 2 we get:

{1,2}

(1,3}

{1,4}

{1,5}

{2,3}

{2,4}

{2,5}

{3,4}

{3,5}

{4,5}

Thanks.

problems reading from DAQmx using Measurement Studio 2010 (even with the NI examples)

Hatefk — Fri, 10 May 2013 18:53:14 GMT

Hi All,

I am trying to read voltage using a NI-DAQ-6211 Card using Measurement Studio 2010 SP1 V9.1.0.204. using Visual Basic .Net 2010.
When I create the DAQ task using the Measurement studio wizard, (DAQ Assistant) everything works fine. However, when I try creating my own reader task by looking over the "ContAcqVoltageSamples_IntClk" all I read is a value going from Vmax to Vmin (or from Vmax to Vmin) and then it stays there no matter if I change my input voltage. Vmin and Vmax dont even correspond to my voltage values. (It acts like this both on my application and the NI's example) I guess I have missed some initial settings. The AIChannel config in both projects (manual Task and Augo-Gen Task) use AIChannelConfig.RSE (I have tried other options but no luck).

The only wiered thing is that when I open example projects, VS does not recognize objects references from NI.DAQmx namespace. When I check the references, it shows that it cannot find the reference to NI.Common. So, to make it compile/work, I removed it from the solution and added it again. (I dont think this is related, as it seems that there are voltages available but not being correctly read.)

The other thing is that my input voltage is either 3 or 0 volts. when using the manual DAQtask, when I toggle the voltage, the displayed values change momentarily in the order of 0.001 Volts and then go back to their previous values of Vmax or Vmin.

Are there any more details that I can provide?

Please help,
Thanks

Window with WPF Graph freezes when windows account locked

jsacks — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:01:26 GMT

Hello,

I'm experiencing some strange behaviour that I believe to be related to a Graph control in my window. As described, the window containing the graph becomes unresponsive after the windows account is locked (winkey+L) and unlocked. To reproduce this while excluding details specific to my application, I created a stripped down version of my custom control called TestControl with the a graph and a progress bar to indicate whether the UI is responding. Nothing special in the code-behind for this control:

<UserControl x:Class="LockBug.Controls.TestControl"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
             xmlns:ni="http://schemas.ni.com/controls/2009/xaml/presentation"
             mc:Ignorable="d" 
             d:DesignHeight="300" d:DesignWidth="300">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition/>
            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <ni:Graph Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0"
                  x:Name="_graph" 
                  RenderMode="Raster" 
                  FontFamily="Arial" 
                  Foreground="#FF7E7E7E" 
                  FontSize="12" 
                  PlotAreaBackground="#FFF9F9F9" 
                  BorderBrush="{x:Null}"
                  BorderThickness="0"
                  DefaultInteraction="Zoom"
                  PreferIndexData="False">
            <ni:Graph.Plots>
            </ni:Graph.Plots>
            <ni:Graph.Axes>
                <ni:AxisDouble x:Name="_yAxis" Orientation="Vertical" MinorDivisions="{x:Null}">
                    <ni:AxisDouble.LabelTemplate>
                        <DataTemplate>
                            <Label Margin="5" Content="{Binding}"/>
                        </DataTemplate>
                    </ni:AxisDouble.LabelTemplate>
                    <ni:AxisDouble.MajorDivisions>
                        <ni:RangeLabeledDivisions Mode="Count: 11" TickVisibility="Hidden"/>
                    </ni:AxisDouble.MajorDivisions>
                    <ni:AxisDouble.MajorGridLines>
                        <ni:GridLines Stroke="#FFD8D8D8" StrokeThickness="2"/>
                    </ni:AxisDouble.MajorGridLines>
                </ni:AxisDouble>
                <ni:AxisDouble x:Name="_ySecondaryAxis" Orientation="Vertical" Location="Far" MinorDivisions="{x:Null}" Visibility="Hidden">
                    <ni:AxisDouble.MajorDivisions>
                        <ni:RangeLabeledDivisions Mode="Count: 11" TickVisibility="Hidden"/>
                    </ni:AxisDouble.MajorDivisions>
                </ni:AxisDouble>
                <ni:AxisPrecisionDateTime x:Name="_xAxis" Orientation="Horizontal" Label="Time">
                    <ni:AxisPrecisionDateTime.MajorDivisions>
                        <ni:RangeLabeledDivisions>
                            <ni:RangeLabeledDivisions.LabelPresenter>
                                <ni:GeneralValueFormatter Format="yy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"/>
                            </ni:RangeLabeledDivisions.LabelPresenter>
                        </ni:RangeLabeledDivisions>
                    </ni:AxisPrecisionDateTime.MajorDivisions>
                </ni:AxisPrecisionDateTime>
            </ni:Graph.Axes>
            <ni:Graph.Children>
                <ni:MultiPlotCursor Name="_mpCursor" Visibility="Hidden" TargetBrush="Red">
                </ni:MultiPlotCursor>
            </ni:Graph.Children>
        </ni:Graph>
        <ProgressBar Grid.Row="1" Height="20" IsIndeterminate="True"/>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

I then have a container window called TestContainerWindow which contains two tabs, each with a TestControl. Again, nothing special in the code-behind:

<Window x:Class="LockBug.Windows.TestContainerWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Test.Controls"
        Title="TestContainerWindow" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Grid>
        <TabControl HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch">
            <TabItem Header="Historical">
                <Grid Background="#FFE5E5E5">
                    <local:TestControl/>
                </Grid>
            </TabItem>
            <TabItem Header="Real Time">
                <Grid Background="#FFE5E5E5">
                    <local:TestControl/>
                </Grid>
            </TabItem>
        </TabControl>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Finally, my main window has a TextBlock that I'm using as a button to launch the container window:

Xaml:

<Window x:Class="LockBug.View.Windows.TestWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:LockBug.Controls"
        Title="TestWindow" Height="300" Width="300">
    <Grid>
        <TextBlock x:Name="_detailsButton" MouseUp="_openPlotWindow" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Text="Details &gt;" Cursor="Hand"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Code:

    public partial class TestWindow : Window
    {
        private TestContainerWindow m_plotWindow = null;

        public TestWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        public void _openPlotWindow(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                if (m_plotWindow == null)
                {
                    m_plotWindow = new TestContainerWindow();
                    m_plotWindow.Show();
                }
                m_plotWindow.Focus();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(string.Format("Unable to show graph window. Exception information: {0}", ex.Message));
            }
        }
    }

All you have to do to reproduce is click on Details, see that the progress bar is moving, lock/unlock your computer, and the UI of the graph window should be frozen. Note that if you set Visibility="Hidden" on the Graph control in TestControl.xaml, the UI responds properly after lock/unlock.

Hopefully this is enough information to reproduce this problem. A sample project has also been attached containing all required code.

As always, your help is much appreciated.

Licensing Questions...

stingray2772 — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:17:51 GMT

I wish to distribute applications built with Measurement Studio libraries and I need to know what I have to do to satisfy the license set forth by NI.

I have been keeping up with my subscription, and my software is properly licensed. What do I have to include in my application to distribute it appropriately? I've read through tons of license information, and it seems anybody short of a lawyer would fall trap to a loop hole. I just want to know what I have to include.

My application will be provided free of charge, though it is closed source. Thanks in advance.

LC.exe crash with code -2146232797 when compiling license.licx (MS 2013, VS 2012)

Proengin — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:37:50 GMT

Hello,

I've been using licenses.licx to load NI assemblies in my application. This used to sort of work, with a crash in the LC.exe compiler here and there, but if I keep trying to recompile it would succeed eventually...

Now that my project has gone bigger, I can't make it to succeed and I would like a good solution to that problem.

My project used to be: Visual Studio 2012, WPF application using .NET 4.5 and NI assemblies from Measurement Studio 2012, with licenses.licx to load NationalInstruments.NetworkVariable.NetworkVariableLicenser (version 12.0.40.318).

I moved to Measurement Studio 2013, and to version 13.0.45.242 of the licenser class, but I get the same error.

Can anyone point me to a workaround or a fix to that problem? Is anyone experiencing it too?

DLB

GenVoltageUpdate .NET Example - error when deployed

marqus — Mon, 06 May 2013 21:43:57 GMT

Hello,

I am using VS2010 with MAX installed by NIDAQ970f0.exe (no Measurement Studio). I’ve built and executed successfully GenVoltageUpdate.2008 .NET example using an USB6008 on my computer.

If I try to install/execute the application on another computer (with MAX installed by NIDAQ970f0Config.exe) I got an error:

“GenVoltageUpdate.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

In the error report I have a message: ” … P9: system.io.fileloadexception. …”

I tried on a few other PC (OS w7, WXP) but with no luck.

Please help me!

Missing Reference NationalInstruments.VisaNS

ssw083 — Sat, 04 May 2013 22:44:33 GMT

I am using Visual Basic 2010 Express to control some VISA compliant instruments.

My OS is Windows XP Professional and I am running Visual Basic 2010 under NET Framework 4.0.

Reference NI-Tutorial-2739-en.

I cannot locate NationalInstruments.VisaNS.

When I use: "Imports NationalInstruments" only the following Namespaces are available: Internal and Max.

I suspect I am not properly selecting install options when running the National Instruments VISA Installer, but I have not been able to determine my error.

Looking for help to resolve this problem?