03-26-2015 08:41 AM
Dear smarter people than me, I have been pulling my hair out trying to get my brand new ENET-232/4 units running under the lastest and greatest LabVIEW envirenment (2014).
After finding that none of the instruction matched what I was seeing in MAX etc, I discovered the following line in the NI-Serial 14.0 driver release notes;
NI-Serial 14.0 removes support for all NI Serial ENET Interfaces (ENET-232/2, ENET-232/4, ENET-485/2, and ENET-485/4).
So my question is if NI-Serial no longer supports or configures the ENET-232/4, then what does? At the moment I just have 5 rather exspensive boxes sitting on the shelf unable to be configured.
Smart brains please help 🙂
Dave
03-26-2015 10:01 AM
Apparently, VISA (Its everywhere you want to be)
Note 1 at the bottom of here
04-05-2015 08:34 AM - edited 04-05-2015 08:39 AM
From here it says that it is mandatory to have a computer that has the right "setup" that support the NI-Serial in order to configure the ENET 232/4 hardware. Let say this hardware is already configured and we move to a Windows 64 bits OS, does my code communicating with serial devices through ENET 232/4 will stay the same (assuming I was already using the VISA functions)? Is there any limitations?
04-05-2015 09:07 AM
04-05-2015 09:32 AM
You can setup a virtual machine which it's only purpose would be to configure the ENET box. You don't need a network to configured it, you just need to wire directly between the ENET box and the computer running the virtual mahcine, anyway this is how I'm doing it right now.
04-05-2015 09:33 AM
@Michel_Gauvin wrote:
From here it says that it is mandatory to have a computer that has the right "setup" that support the NI-Serial in order to configure the ENET 232/4 hardware. Let say this hardware is already configured and we move to a Windows 64 bits OS, does my code communicating with serial devices through ENET 232/4 will stay the same (assuming I was already using the VISA functions)? Is there any limitations?
Can anyone answer this question prior I move all my computer and OS to 64 bits?
04-05-2015 09:49 AM
04-09-2015 11:22 AM
Hi Dave,
As per the NI-Serial 14.0 Readme, as you have already discovered, support for all NI Serial ENET devices has been removed. This is a result of the NI Serial ENET devices being discontinued. As mentioned by Michel_Gauvin, the NI Serial ENET devices can be used without the presence of the NI-Serial driver on the system. Instructions for using NI Serial ENET devices via the NI-VISA driver can be found in this KnowledgeBase. As a note, the ENET device will still need to be configured on a system that has NI-Serial with ENET support. My recommendation would be to stick with NI-Serial 4.1 for ease of use and configuration if you plan on continuing to use the ENET devices.
Michel,
Changes to your LabVIEW code could be required when moving to a 64-bit Windows operating system. One change that may be required is the "VISA resource name" input because MAX will not discover/show the NI Serial ENET device on the 64-bit OS, so if an alias was being used during development it would not be recognized when moved over.
Best,
Jake B.
04-09-2015 12:54 PM - edited 04-09-2015 12:55 PM
I don't have any problems changing my VISA resource name.
Since the NI Serial ENET devices are being discontinued and there are still a log of good old instruments out there (very good one) that only communicates with serial port, can you recommend a third party replacement for the ENET 232/4 device? This is to avoid having a virtual machine required to configure the ENET hardware and having full support for the 64 bits OS.
Thanks,
Michel
04-10-2015 03:38 PM
Hi Michel,
We are recommending users to migrate to the NI USB-232. However, we understand that due to the limitation of the USB cable length that the NI USB-232 will not meet all application needs. I do not have a recommendation for replacement ENET/Serial devices, but there does appear to be quite a few different vendors; contacting these vendors directly may be the best way to evaluate an appropriate replacement.
Best,
Jake B.