Web Server for Local Serial Device. How do we Communicate with a Serial Device with a LV UI? USB communication over LV Web UI

[davekorpi]

Guys and Gals:

I write LabVIew executables that service a device that connects to the serial port.

As such, the folks who want to use this program have to install the LabVIEW Runtime Engine and are supremely confused and end up very frustrated with the install process.

What I want is to use the Web UI to write an interface that allows the user to go to the server, and select the com port and be able to see THEIR serial device..

See this video for an example of what I want..

http://www.screencast.com/t/shzW1ear

Anyone know if we can do that?

Can you see the VALUE of that?

If we can not do that is there a procedure to compile an Executable that has EVERYTHING embedded in it to support PLAIN AND SIMPLE Serial calls thru the USB or good ole RS-232 ports??

If so please share that..

The reason I ask is when I make an executable for a LabVIEW app that ONLY has VISA calls it is a honkin' huge file and folks ALSO have to download the LabVIEW Run-Time engine..

I remember the days of LabVIEW 6.0 X that did not need all those goodies..

ANY TRICKS at all would be appreciated!

Note... The philosophy is that this is for a user who has a serial device (much like everyone has an MP-3 Player) and they want to gain access to it without having to install a software program that requires gobs of space to do....

LASTLY... If LV can not do this anyone know of another solution I might consider???

[James-B]

Hi Dave,

There really isn't a way to make LabVIEW calls on a machine without the LabVIEW Runtime Engine.  You could, however, make an installer to install the LabVIEW Runtime Engine as well as all of the drivers required.  This would make the installation easy, but not any smaller.

[Fred_V]

Hey Dave,

For security reasons, browser vendors have not made it easy for a website to communicate with peripherals on your computer. E.g. If www.randomsite.ru could enable your webcam and take a picture when you browsed to it…

As mentioned, if you are going to continue using LabVIEW, your best bet is to take your existing application, build it into an installer along with the LabVIEW run-time engine and the appropriate version of VISA.

On the Mac, you could use this post-install script to bundle VISA and the RTE directly into a single file executable, but unfortunately this approach no longer works with EXEs on Windows.

Alternatively, you might look at some web connected hardware that could communicate with your serial devices, instead of needing to be connected to your users PCs. Something like this would allow you to make a custom website that can communicate with the serial device via that adapter.

I hope that helps,