Building executables in LabVIEW using VI Logger toolkit VIs.

[donekes]

I am trying to create an executable in LabVIEW utilizing sub VIs from the VI Logger sub-palette. The .exe appears to build just fine. But when I run it, it just hangs upon entry. I have already tried the re-naming of the Labview.ini file trick suggested per the Knowledge base, but still, no dice. Has anyone ever tried creating .exe's using these VI's? If so, what hoop am I forgetting to jump through here?

[Travis G.]

Hello donekes,

I have a few questions about how you are building and running this executable.  Are you trying to run your executable on the development machine with LabVIEW and VI Logger installed, or on a different target machine without these programs installed?  Do you have the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine installed on the target machine?  What versions of LabVIEW and VI Logger are you using, and is it VI Logger Lite or Full?  A VI Logger task is created from an NI-DAQmx or Traditional NI-DAQ task, which is created in Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX).  Are these DAQ tasks and their associated VI Logger tasks present in MAX on the machine in which you are running the executable?  Does the program run correctly when not in executable form, but in VI form?  Maybe you could attach your VI so we can take a look at it and maybe replicate your issue.

I have never tried creating an executable using VI's from the VI Logger palette.  Instead, I usually use the NI-DAQmx VIs to acquire data and the File I/O VIs to save that data to file.  These VIs are native to LabVIEW and the NI-DAQmx driver, and should build into executables with no problems.  I think this is a better way of programming an application that you plan to distribute, because all you need is the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine and NI-DAQmx driver installed on the target machine.  For a program that uses VI Logger tasks, you will need to install VI Logger on every machine to which you plan on distributing the executable, which could be become an issue with licensing.  You will also need to either recreate or import the MAX configuration to each target machine in order to create the DAQ tasks and VI Logger tasks that your executable relies on.

Let us know some more information about your executable and the system you are running it on, and hopefully we can help you out.

Regards,
Travis G.
Applications Engineering
National Instruments
www.ni.com/support

[donekes]

Hello Travis,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. Anyway, to hopefully answer some of your questions, here is a brief description of what I am trying to do with VI logger:

I am currently working with the VI Logger Lite software that was included with a DAQ-PAD 6015 that I recently received. Originally, all that I needed the VI Logger software for was to do some quick data collection of some load cell signals, and export the data runs into a .txt file for later analysis. This worked great, however, we discovered that VI Logger would only allow us the slowest sampling rate of 1Hz. Since the test that we are running is to occur over a period of time of about 2 weeks, at this sampling rate, the amount of run data to be analyzed in the .txt file would be enormous. Instead of having our mechanical engineer have to deal with crunching all of this data, I suggested creating a simple vi in labview that would parse off some of the run data collected by VI logger and save it to a much smaller spreadsheed file.

I developed the VI on my desktop workstation using LabVIEW 7.1, with both VI Logger and NI-DAQmx. I intended to distribute an executable to only one pc in our lab that also has VI Logger lite, as well as NI-DAQmx and the LabVIEW runtime engine, but not the LabVIEW development environment. As I stated in my previous post. I was able to successfully build an executable on my workstation, but when I went to run it, it hang, and I had to terminate the executable from the Windows task manager. This problem occurred on both my workstation, as well as the pc I intended to distribute to. As far as the OS goes, I am currently running WinXP on my workstation, and Win2000 on the lab pc.

I have attached a copy of the VI that I wrote for you to review. Please let me know if you can figure something out asap.

Thanks!

Don Ekes

Program Analyst

Delta Design

[Travis G.]

Hello Don,

I tried running your program, in VI form and after building it into an executable, and it worked fine for me.  I'm using LabVIEW 8.0 and VI Logger 2.0.1.  Make sure you are using this latest version of VI Logger, which can be downloaded from this site.  Also, try creating some indicators on your front panel to show the outputs of each step of the program, i.e. display the logging task list and the run names returned by the VI Logger VIs.  This will give you an idea where in the program the problem is occuring. 

Let me know updating the VI Logger version helps, and if you can determine wher in the program it is hanging.  In the meantime, I'll try to replicate the software versions you are using to see if I can replicate this.

Regards,
Travis G.

[donekes]

Hello Travis,

I checked what version of VI Logger I am currently running. I am already running version 2.01. Also, I am currently only running VI Logger Lite. I'm also using LabVIEW 7.1. Perhaps the issue may lie in these version differences.

As far as your second suggestion of adding indicators to the front panel goes. I already tried adding a string indicator displaying the task name returned. I even went as far as adding an led prior to "VI Logger Data Get Task.vi", just to verify that the program begins running. It appears that the executable hangs right when "VI Logger Data Get Task. vi" is called.

[Laura F.]

Hello Don,

I have taken your VI and built it into an executable using LabVIEW 7.1 and VI Logger 2.0.1 and everything works correctly.  Did you get any error messages during the build?  The best solution may be to try reinstalling some software, such as VI Logger or LabVIEW.  I am attaching the exe that I built - can you run this?

Thanks,

Laura

[Newlab]

Hello Donekes,

I have three PCs in my lab. One out of three has Labview 7.1 development environment and other two has labview rutime engine. How can I findout which one has development environment?

Thanks

Bavku

[Jarrod_S.]

If you have LabVIEW installed, it should show up in your Start Menu under Programs >> National Instruments >> LabVIEW. You can also expand the Software item in the left-hand column in Measurement and Automation Explorer to see if LabVIEW shows up in that list.