Spying on a Serial Port

[price1]

I have an application (not LabView) that is collecting data via a serial port (COM1).  I am interested in spying

on that serial port using LabView.  Is it possible to collect data from that port without disturbing the collection

of data from the other application.

I would appreciate any help,

price1

[Dennis_Knutson]

The OS will prevent you from opening a VISA session (or even Hyperterminal) to a com port that is already in use. There is a free utility program called portmon that will monitor serial activity. I don't remember exactly where I got it but you should be able to google portmon.exe and find a download site. The only option that I know of to use LabVIEW is to create a special serial cable that splits into two connectors so that you could plug into a second com port on the pc and then monitor the data being received from the instrument.

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Here is a free download RS-232 Spy Utility courtesy of TAL Technologies.

http://www.taltech.com/freesoftware/breakout.htm

[Khalid]

Portmon's the best...!

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/Portmon.html

-Khalid

[Soroush]

Just another spying serial port utility

http://www.hhdsoftware.com/sermon.html

you'll find some other useful utilities at

http://www.hhdsoftware.com

I'm not the beneficiary

just use the trial versions and change your machine's date when needed

I think this is more complete and user friendly than portmon

sorry to say that I also don't know any way to build a sniffing srial port application by LV.

[price1]

Too bad there is no ActiveX component or dll I could use to incorporate it into a LabView or even VB application.

Thanks again for all the links they are very helpfull.

price1

[ceties]

Hey all, isn't there some new way how to spy the com port communication via LabVIEW? Or some work around?

[unclebump]

Check this link.

http://www.fte.com/default.asp

[ceties]

Well, I meant whether there is some way using LabVIEW not other software. Anyway thx

[LaurenLL]

Ceties,

There is not a 'new' way to spy a serial port using LabVIEW, although National Instruments software can be used for that purpose.  You can either use NI Spy (shipped with all NI software) or the Troubleshooting Serial Line Monitor example located in the LabVIEW example finder.

Also, depending on what you are trying to do, there is an extended NI-Spy that installs with the IVI driver toolset. This version of Spy will capture calls made to the IVI class drivers. Search for ivi at ni.com/products for more details.

Regards,

Lauren L