VISA Runtime 4.2

[hellolv]

Hi,

My executable is built by LabVIEW 8.2 and runs with DAQmx 8.5.  

Is there any difference if I run NI VISA Runtime 4.1 instead of 4.2?



hellolv

[Wayne.C]

Version of VISA runtime must match version of VISA installed on develpment machine when executable was created.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The question would also be since you are using DAQmx, do you really need to install VISA at all?

Centerbolt,

I'm not sure that statement is accurate. I do a lot of development on my pc where I have the latest version of NI-VISA and the built files run just fine on systems with a various number of different NI-VISA versions.

[Wayne.C]

Dennis,

My own past experience has not been so kind.  I have had a couple of instances where I updated an app and did not deploy the newer version of VISA runtime.  It just did not work for my app.  I have not tried this in a while and it may well work with the newer versions of VISA.

[Steve.Briggs]

My experience with this shares both of your experiences.

In terms of a one generation gap for VISA runtimes, lets say 4.1 to 4.2, everything worked accordingly.

In terms of a much larger difference, say three or four generation gaps on the older runtime engines, the apps tripped up a bit and did not work as intended.

Perhaps someone from NI can give reason to this

[LaurenLL]

Hi Steve (and everyone else),

You mentioned that when making jumps between versions of VISA runtime, you ran into issues.  What were these specifically?  We try our best to make all transitions as smooth as possible, so if you are running into errors, let us know so that we may improve on our software.

Good luck to everyone,

Lauren L.

[Wayne.C]

Lauren,

The question is as follows:

When an executable that uses NI-VISA is deployed to a target machine, does the version of NI-VISA Runtime installed on the target machine need to exactly match the version of NI-VISA used on the development machine?

Dennis has indicated that in many cases a slight difference in version does not seem to matter.  My own experience in the past is that a difference in version would render an executable inoperable.  Steve meanwhile has experienced the best and worst of both worlds. 

[hellolv]

My executable was built on a computer with NI VISA Runtime 4.2 installed but runs on a computer with 4.1.

The executable runs and sees the USB-6008 OEM without problems.  However, the serial port communication is on and off at times with no apparent pattern to me. 

Sometimes after a reboot the communication comes back up, sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes after ruuning for a few minutes, serial port communication is working again.

[LaurenLL]

hellolv,

I think that through all the posts, I got a little confused on the specific question.  Centerbolt was correct, that to guarantee successful operation, it is important to make sure that the runtime versions match.  VISA runtime 4.2 can simply be installed from our website, either directly onto the target computer or as an installer on the executable.

In situations where there is nothing in the vi that is version specific, an executable running different version may still have worked.  With each subsequent version, there are more changes made to the drivers, so this is why a larger jump in versions may be less likely to work.  For specifics on the changes made, you can check the readmes for each particular driver.

Also, our drivers are meant to be as backwards compatible as possible, so a executable running a newer version than it was created on is more likely to work than if than if the target machine is running an older version.

I hope this helps a little,

Lauren L.