Labview program works on one computer, but doesn't on another.

[pirates712]

We have a laptop running a custom data aquisition program that was made with labview by an external company. It communicates via ethernet with a box full of national instruments hardware that is connected to some sensors. While it works fine on the laptop, attempts to install the software on other computers results in the following error message "An error occured while attempting to open the configuration file "C:\program files\(name of the program)\data\(name of our company)fieldpoint.iak"". This error occurs whenever we try to open the test settings page or run a test. I've checked that directory and the file is in fact there.

The new computers (we've tried several) always have difficulty connecting to the hardware via ethernet, and if you look at the network activity in windows you can see a whole bunch of packets being sent but only a few if any being recieved. I'm wondering if this is a network configuration problem? I've tried to match as many settings as I can find but to no avail. 

The company that made the software isn't responding to emails.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

[Mark_Yedinak]

I suspect that the problem you have communicating with the equipment is a configuration issue. You mentioned you see lots of packets going out but nothing coming back. Are the packets going out being sent to the correct IP Address?

I am not sure why you are not seeing the file since you say it is there. When you installed this application did you use their installer or simply copy things over to the other computer. There may be registry settings that are not there if you simply copied it. Also, there may be other support files that are not present on the other computer. You may also want to check the permissions on the files too. You will get an error if you try to open a file with the wrong permissions and this error is not always clear about what the issue is.

[smercurio_fc · Accepted solution]

One off-hand thought: the file you are trying to read is a FieldPoint config file. I don't know if the FieldPoint configuration file format changed with different versions of FieldPoint. Perhaps you don't have the same version of FieldPoint installed?

[pirates712]

The new computer is configured with the same IP address as the old computer. Curiously none of the XP computers, including the laptop, have a tab for security and permissions, but the folders are "read only" on all including the working computer. 

The fieldpoint version might be the culprit. We have a bunch of different disks laying around and we might not have the correct version installed. I'll take a look at that next. 

[Mark_Yedinak]

I'm assuming that the both your computers are not connected to the network at the same time. You cannot have two computers with the same IP address on the network at the same time. Communications will not be reliable.

With respect to the IP address I was talking more about the device you are trying to talk to rather than the PC itself. If your application is not getting properly initialized it could be trying to talk to your equipment using the wrong IP address. This could mean you are trying to talk to something that isn't there. For example, your PC equipment has an IP address of 10.3.4.10 but the application will use a default address of 192.168.0.10 if it is not configured properly.

[pirates712]

I'm wondering if the configuration file problem is related, could our software be setting up communication when it initializes using the settings saved in the configuration file?

[Mark_Yedinak]

I would imagine that the communication parameters are stored in the configuration file. This is a very likely scenario.

[JÞB]

"An error occured while attempting to open the configuration file "C:\program files\(name of the program)\data\(name of our company)fieldpoint.iak""

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That line may mean that the vendor established a security key in the software specifically to prevent multiple deployments (maybe for licensing issues Several products that I've shipped in installers for customers required a per installation license fee that was passed on to the customer.)  Did the solution come with an installation guide or other documentation?

[JohnCS]

Here's two things you can try. 

Does  your system show up in the Data Neighborhood in MAX? If not, try to open the iak file from the FieldPoint Items right click menu in MAX. If it opens successfully,  compare the settings with the previous computer. They should be the same.

Does the remote equipment appear in the Remote Systems branch in MAX? If not, reconnect to the old computer, establish communications and get the settings from its MAX.

JohnCS

[pirates712]

It works!

I had to upgrade fieldpoint to version 5.0 to get rid of the error message, and the software on the new computer was looking for a different ip address than was configured on the old computer. Once I put that it I started getting signals!

Thanks everyone for the help!