Error 1: An Input Parameter Is Invalid in LabVIEW

[cpalka]

Dear All

I am facing too with this Error 1.

My big problem is that I buy a test machine from 2015 (completely new - never worked since that).

It is a servo-hydraulic machine, with an ADwin light 16 board that reads some lvdts and other sensors and controls a servo-valve.

The software was developed in Labview but is closed as an executable application.

When I start a fatigue test, it can work for hours or days...unfortunately the Error 1 appears after sometime, never after the same time. I read that it could be resolved in the block diagram, but  the manufacturer cannot resolve the problem and seems does not have the VI or Project.

He says that I need to wait for a new model of the machine and then we will try adapt the new software to my machine.

I can prove that the machine has this error in 2015 (i have a print screen from error on that date), so it is a manufacturer error and of course after this years he cannot guarantee nothing.

My reason to come here is if someone can help me for some way to keep machine working and saving data without give me this Error. Maybe saving it in C:\ or a USB drive, or .....

I am desperate because I expect this machine will help me in lab doing more tests for the students.

I will be really thanks if someone could help me facing this problem.

Best regards

cpalka

[GerdW]

Hi cpalka,

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@cpalka wrote:

unfortunately the Error 1 appears after sometime, never after the same time. I read that it could be resolved in the block diagram, but  the manufacturer cannot resolve the problem and seems does not have the VI or Project.

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Your manufacturer is the only one being able to help you as they should have the source code…

[tst]

To give you some more details:

1. Error 1 is a fairly generic error which means "invalid input". This means a function somewhere in the code (and this error dialog doesn't say which function, only which other function it was called in) got an invalid input (for example, a reference which is no longer valid) and there is a piece of code which also displays the dialog if there is an error, which is generally not a great error handling strategy, especially if you have code which runs for a long time, like in your case.
2. This error is not for something like an invalid path, as those generate other errors (for example, error 7 is file not found and error 10 is duplicate path, if you're trying to overwrite an existing file without specifying you're trying to overwrite), so it could be anything, but it's likely a bug in the code of either closing a reference and then using it or trying to use a reference which was never created.
3. Without access to the source code, there's basically nothing anyone can do other than tell you "yeah, there was an error somewhere in the specific function mentioned in the dialog". Since you say they don't have the original code either, that means they can't help you with that either and it seems like testing with the updated software is the most practical option at this point. Ideally, software developers use source code control systems which do allow them to access older versions of the code, but I don't know what their situation is.
4. A caveat to the last point is that there are more or less involved ways to try to take an executable and recreate the original code from it, but:
   1. I'm not sure if that's allowed in the EULA people agree to when installing LabVIEW.
   2. The number of people playing with this is not large. This is a niche interest and not something simple.
   3. I don't know how well it works. There were experiments people made for their own interests, but likely not an actual tool which can be used in the general case.

[altenbach]

It is very unlikely that you can reverse engineer the exe, because by default the diagrams are removed.

I assume you have full documentation how to setup the experiments and enter correct values for all inputs. Can you absolutely exclude user error? For example the cycle number is getting close to the I16 limit, (but is not quite there yet).

What is your OS? One possibility could be some slight incompatibility with e.g. Windows 11.

The front panel looks quite nice and professional, but we know to "never judge a VI by its front panel". If the company does not have the code, they probably outsourced it, but I would be surprised if they don't have ownership of the code. I guess they just don't want you to hack around and break it even more. 😄 Is there a "help...about" screen and what does it say?

If you have documentation on the communication protocol, somebody could probably write new code.

[billko]

 An error 1 with no saved data is suspicious to me.  Sometimes saved data paths are concatenated from several different sources (Test Name for example) and often what happens is that whatever is supposed to supply part of a name had an error and (in the example above) never supplies the test name.  This results in an error 1, but I can't remember where that happens.

So it's likely that the error 1 is a symptom and not the problem.

[cpalka]

Hi Bill

Many thanks.

The data is being saved until the Error 1 appears.

Looking data, I expected to found in data file some special character, or spike from 1 of the 3 lvdts or load cell, etc...but the data file is not the raw data, is a post process data with some calculations and as some tests are at 10Hz, it processes only some cycles. It measures the lvdts (displacement) and load to make calculations in some cycles.

The computer either the OS was from company and should work.

For all of You many thanks for the help. I will insist for the company give me the source, but support said that should not be possible because inside rules. At the same I fell that they don't have people to "understand" this old code, or they don't want it.

I represent an University and in part I understand the company, that they had the right to not give anymore support to this very "old" machine from 2015 that never worked.

A private company in that time buy it and I went there to teach the technician to work with it and a few months with crysis the company closes and machine stays stopped in a pavilion.

Many thanks

cpalka

[tst]

Just to clarify my earlier comment, as I phrased it poorly: the error could come from an invalid path, if the path structure itself is invalid (invalid chars, empty file names, etc.). The error text you see on the screen even gives that as the example.

And one more point: while error 1 is a generic invalid input error, in practice it could also have been generated explicitly by the code and mean something else entirely. There is nothing forcing the actual meaning of the error code itself as it's just a number.

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@cpalka wrote:

For all of You many thanks for the help. I will insist for the company give me the source, but support said that should not be possible because inside rules.

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Seems you're in a sticky situation. The decision on whether or not to supply source code or how long to provide support for things is obviously something that would be made on an individual basis. I wouldn't hold your breath for getting the code as it's a reasonable stance to not supply the code and it seems unlikely to change unless they really don't care about it. I would opt for trying more to get the support, but it's possible that their stance of "get the current version/device" is also better and cheaper overall.

[cpalka]

Hi tst

Thanks.

Should be something that happened during the test. Because it saves data until the error appears. Maybe a Close file in vi that closes before the time, or....

Without the VIs it will be difficult.

Best regards

cpalka

[aeastet]

Is there nay chance you are running out of memory or the file is getting too big? If the file is bigger than 2Gig in a 32 bit system it could cause the problem. It could be that you  are running out of virtual memory or something like that.