universal serial port communication, I have no idea

[precious1]

Hi buddies! I am trying to think on how I can configure VI write a message on it and if possible to send it via USB to the USB device.

Please help me with ideas on how to make this possible as I am new to LabVIEW

[WishKebab · Accepted solution]

Hi precious1, 

What USB device are you trying to use?  What is your application?  How are you looking to control the device?

As a first step, take a look at the following NI White Paper: USB Instrument Control Tutorial

It should help you configure your USB device for use within a LabVIEW VI.

[Albert.Geven]

Hi

Nice article but I've already seen too much people to start with USB to instruments directly where the USB connection hides a simple serial bus.

This article should also warn to check this first before trying to do direct usb io.

[WishKebab]

That's a good point Albert.  

precious1:

Often, a device's USB driver will create a virtual COM port which you can use to directly send/receive serial commands with with device.  Check in Measurement and Automation Explorer (NI MAX) to see if your device shows up as a serial port already.  If it does, then you can use that COM port with LabVIEW directly.

What is the device you are trying to use?  Knowing this will help us help you get started.

[precious1]

Hi Kevin and Albert! Thanks for your concerns;

Wishkebab

Regarding your first response, I am not physically using any physical USB device, I was writing simple program in labview on which I
expected to display what I was writing to another screen (read buffer), but whenever I was trying to run it i got "Error 1 occurred at Property Node (arg 1) in VISA Configure Serial Port (Instr)." respectively  as at visa write and read.

I have discoverd that I am missing drivers for USB (COM), so I am trying to download them, after I install and run I will come back to you with the results.

Please warn me if am taking a wrong way

[Albert.Geven]

Hi Kevin

I think the article should reflect that serial port problem. So it is not an instrument that is bothering me, just the lack of attention for this situation in the article.

I should have posted the comment there, but that is not possible anymore,

So also a remark, why can I give a rating but there is no place for suggestions or remarks like this.

[precious1]

Hi buddies!

After I downloaded, I tried to install visa 5.3 for Window 7 32-bit and I am using labView 2009 and soonn I failed.

I have discovered what I was trying to install is hardware driver while I need software driver to make virtual serial ports to be visible.

Very unfortunately I don't see what looks like what I am suppose to have as I have tried to find in NI (according to my limited understanding).

Please tell me the drivers that I must have for my simple program to run. I have attached the program

[JÞB]

There are many Virtual COM Port drivers available.  The one you need will depend on the chipset inside the device you want to talk to.  (Thats why we keep asking which device is on the other end or what USB to serial bridge you are using)

Prolific, FTDI and Silicon Labs are the most common chipsets.  There are several others.

[precious1]

Thanks Jeff, My questions might be too much because I am new to labview, please bear with me. I wrote the program intentionally to run it on my computer (please see the attachment) just on the same page (write and read buffer) I expected to write "anything" and to be able to read it on the read buffer on the same page not to any external device. As you are talking about device on the other hand; how do I know the chipset on my PC as I want to transfer data within the PC (labview)? Wait to hear

[precious1]

Thanks Jeff, My questions might be too much because I am new to labview, please bear with me. I wrote the program intentionally to run it on my computer (please see the attachment) just on the same page (write and read buffer) I expected to write "anything" and to be able to read it on the read buffer on the same page not to any external device. As you are talking about device on the other hand; how do I know the chipset on my PC as I want to transfer data within the PC (labview)? Wait to hear