RS232 Comms Error Indication

[Mitch_Peplow]

Hi all, new to the site so please forgive me for any question that seems obvious or child’s play Basically the problem I have is that sometimes I loose communication between my FieldPoint FP-1000 and LabView. When I say I loose comms, the Network and Access LED on the FP are still flashing away but all the values on the screen go to zero. It is not a set time when it will do this, it is random and ive only had it once where the values came back briefly then went again Ive checked the port using 'Hyperterminal' as described in the NI help section and the port appears OK. Also all Baud rates have been checked 

Does anybody know what the FP-1000 does if it has a comms error or does it even have that error code available to display? Its just strange that the port is ok and the network and access LED's appear to still be transmitting and the DAQ on LabView is still receiving messages so to me the FP seems ok?

Ive got a programme called Portmon on Cd which ive been advised to use to check the status of the port when it goes down, unless you have any sugegstions before I try it?  Many thanks in advance, any ideas or suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated Regards Mitch

[JamesC]

Hi Mitch,

After having a bit of a scout around on this issue, I have picked up a hint from a previous issue a customer was seeing. This seemed to be resolved by replacing the Fieldpoint Express VI with the standard VI "FP Read".

Please can you try this and see if it improves the issue.

Regards
JamesC
NIUK and Ireland

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[Mitch_Peplow]

Hi there James, cheers for the reply

Could you tell me how I would go about doing this and what effect it would have and would I have to change other programme parameters as the machine in question is locked (to a certain degree) by the original programme writers

I believe I only have the virtual instrument and not the true .exe, will this make a difference or create a problem?

Many thanks

Mitch

[JamesC]

Hi Mitch,

Please can you test the comms connection with some of the example programs shipped with LabVIEW. The ones I am thinking of are located in the LabVIEW Example Finder (Open LabVIEW goto Help >> Find Examples)

From the Example Finder go to Hardware I/O >> FieldPoint >>  Getting Started >> Analog Input.vi

This will let you quickly and easily test the comms on the FieldPoint. It will also show you how to use the FP Read vi.

Regards
JamesC
NIUK and Ireland

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