Where are the files (.dll and .h) necassary to control a RS-485 card with Agilent VEE?

[skottyd]

Where are the files (.dll and .h) necassary for Agilent VEE to communicate with a NI RS-485 card? I had a similar question regarding a NI DIO-096 card about 4 months ago and was pointed in the right direction. Hopefully this will give me an answer as well.

[Chris_Rake]

RS-485 transceiver controls can be controlled via IOCTL calls. I've attached a header file that assists with these calls. Depending on the driver version you're using you'll want to use either NISERIAL_SET_RS485_MODE or SERIAL_IOCTL_SET_TRANSCEIVER_MODE

[skottyd]

Hi Chris,
What is the .dll file that the .h file defines?

[Chris_Rake]

There is no .dll provided by NI - the header is to be used in a C/CVI application that you would write. Since the NI driver interfaces with the Win32 API there is no separate DDL for providing the driver interface. Instead you can make calls directly through your application in C, CVI, VISA, LabVIEW, etc.

[skottyd]

This is unfortunate. Thanks for your quick responses.

[Chris_Rake]

Why is this unfortunate?

[skottyd]

The test engineering group that I am a part of uses Agilent VEE. The project in question is already written in VEE. VEE can import .dll files as functions. This would be of great convienience if they were already created, as they were for the DIO-096 card. Is there an example of C code on the NI site that I could transform into a DLL? I would rather not have to write this from scratch, in either C or VEE. I'm only helping out on this project; its not mine to begin with. And stop smiling at my choice of VEE over NI products, as I know there are probably tons of .vi's written for this very problem!!

[Chris_Rake]

I have heard of some customers writing serial dlls that can be called from LabVIEW (or another software package :), however I don't have any code that does this. I do have an example C program that can be used to create simple serial communication apps. Unfortunately I can not offer much support for this code, but it may give you some ideas.

See the attached code.

[skottyd]

Thanks for the code. I'll pass it along.