LabVIEW NXT toolkit and Vista

[williamlweaver]

Hi All,

This is not a burning problem, but have folks tried out the NXT toolkit with Vista?  I've installed Vista Business Edition under our MSDNAA license on a development machine to start slogging through compatability issues with our current suite of software, and it appears the LabVIEW NXT toolkit may be an early casualty.

The toolkit installs fine under Vista BusEd, but the NXT console application crashes when I try to run it from the LabVIEW IDE menu.

Any thoughts/experiences with this?

Best regards,

-Bill  =]

[williamlweaver]

Sorry for replying to my own message...

I'm back in front of the Vista system this morning and I noticed I used the wrong word to describe the problem.  I mistakenly used the term NXT _Console_.  I am referring to the "NXT Terminal..." menu option from the Tools|NXT Module -> menu on the Getting Started window of LV 8.20 under Vista BusEd.

The error reads:  "An error occurred trying to load the NXT Terminal." in an OK button dialog that closes after pressing OK.  Not a "crash" per se...  no BSOD or anything...

It looks like the "New NXT Block Wizard..." launches correctly (although I get the expected warning message about LV 8.20 saving as LV 7.1 for NXT-G).

I hope this helps!

-Bill  =]

[williamlweaver]

More fallout...

When I attempt to load some of my LabVIEW WinXP NXT code based on the sendDirectCommand.vi or use the new library vis from the NXT toolkit, I get the following error:

Error loading "fantom.dll".

A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed.

Looks like no Aero Glass robots for now....

-Bill  =]

[Joel_Dixon]

Hi Bill,

Which version of Vista are you using? 32-bit or 64-bit? I am doing a bit of testing on Vista and when I installed the toolkit on Vista with LabVIEW 8.2, the terminal did launch correctly. I tried on 64-bit Vista and the installer would not even run.

We have seen the toolkit run correctly with USB on 32-bit Vista, but we don't expect it to run correctly on 64-bit Vista because of the driver incompatibilities.

So can you list a bit more information about the OS you are using?

Thanks,
Joel

[williamlweaver]

Hi Joel,

Thanks for your reply.  The specifics of my development system are below:

OS: Windows Vista Business
Proc: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80 GHZ
RAM: 1014 MB
Type: 32-bit OS

I chose to use the Vista UPGRADE of WinXPsp2 rather than a wipe and clean install.  Before upgrading the OS I removed all previous versions of LabVIEW (7.1 and 8.0) and also removed the Mindstorms NXT-G system.

After the OS upgrade to 32-bit VistaBusEd, I installed LabVIEW 8.20, then Mindstorms NXT-G, several LabVIEW Toolkits and finally the LabVIEW NXT Toolkit.

When I try to load LabVIEW code that uses (for example) the sendDirectCommand.vi from the FantomSDK, I get the following block diagram error:

"Call Library Function Node 'fantom.dll:nFANTOM100_iNXT_sendDirectCommand': function not found in library
Details: The function name specified for this node cannot be found in the library.  Right-click the Call Library Function node and select Configure, then choose the correct function name.

When I follow the Details procedure, I specify the exact location of the fantom.dll, select nFANTOM100_iNXT_sendDirectCommand from the Function name dropdown listbox, the Thread is set to Reentrant and the Calling convention is set to "C".........after closing the dialog I get:

Error loading "C:\.....path.....\fantom.dll".
A dynamic link library (DLL) initialization routine failed.

Also, when I create a blank vi and drop a function from the LabVIEW NXT toolkit, such as NXTToolkit.DC.FindNXT.vi on the block diagram, I imediately get the following similar error:

Error loading "fantom.dll".
A dynamic line library (DLL) initialization routine failed.

Does this help?

Many thanks,

-Bill  =]

p.s. - BTW, the Minstorms NXT-G system works as expected under the 32-bit VistaBusEd using both USB and Bluetooth.....so I guess VistaBusEd is able to intialize and communicate through the fantom.dll when used by NXT-G.

Message Edited by qswitch on 12-19-2006 08:36 AM

[Joel_Dixon]

Bill,

After further testing, I am seeing the same results as you. It appears that the toolkit simply will not run at all on Vista. In my investigation, it looks like one of the dependencies, i.e. Visa which is used to communicate with the NXT is not functional on Vista.

But, of course, running on Vista is something we want the toolkit to do in the future, so it is definitely on the radar.

Joel

[williamlweaver]

Thanks Joel!

Happy hunting!

-Bill  =]

[Joel_Dixon]

Bill,

One workaround I found is to run LabVIEW as Administrator. Right-click on LabVIEW.exe in Explorer and select 'Run as administrator'.

In this case, it seemed to work correctly. Obviously not a real solution, but it might allow you to run the toolkit in Vista.

[williamlweaver]

Thanks Joel!

This fix works like a charm.  I had heard about Vista encapsulating user rights into virtual registries and isolated machine access.

I guess VISA is one of old school platforms needing to change to the new model?

Best regards,

-Bill  =]

[Joel_Dixon]

Exactly. Vista, of course, is a hot topic around here right now.

Glad that works for you.