How do I create virtual com port?

[wd8ivl]

Hello List, 

I have a DLL that interacts with one of our company made boards via RS232.  To be able to interact with four of thease boards at a distance at the same time, I purchased a B&B ethernet to 4-port RS232 converter. 

My thought was to have the DLL write to 4 different virtual com ports, read the data from those with Labview, write it from Labview over ethernet to the proper IP/Port of the B&B converter.  To read the remote boards, I'd just do the same thing in reverse.

I've seen several places on the web to buy software to create virtual com ports, but can I do it directly in Labview?

Using LV 8.2 on Windows XP.

Thanks,

Mike

[Wayne.C]

Mike,

I thought the driver for the B&B hardware created virtual com ports?

[RTSLVU]

I would think the B&B would come with Windows drivers to create the virtual com ports.

Fact it would be useless if it didn't.

The virtual com ports should show up in MAX and Labview just like any "real" com port.

[wd8ivl]

Yes to all of those who wrote - the B&B does let you create virtual com ports.

The last thing I tried was communicating computer to computer just through the real com ports (which worked fine), and then through the virtual com port and the B&B unit to the other computer.  The B&B unit does not pass the data correctly - don't know it's caused by software overruns on the virtual com port driver or hardware in the B&B unit, but they are sending me another one.

Thanks for everyone's help. 

Mike

[HB.]

Hello everyone

I think I should not start with a new thread fro my Question because the subject of my question is same as that of Mr. wd8ivl.

Can I create a virtual com port directly in LabVIEW without using any other Virtual Ports installer etc etc. I originally hve 2 com ports in my system. When I tried to create COM 3 with Measurement and Automation Explorer, I got an error message

"MAX could not open a VISA session to this static device. The device was not returned from VISA when finding resources, but MAX was able to use VISA to parse the resource name."

Please tell me how can I create virtual com port directly in LabVIEW as other programming Language (like VB) do.

[muks]

See here

[pincpanter]

I'm not aware that you can create virtual COM ports by means of a compiler like VB, unless you buy dedicated external components (either ActiveX or .NET).

With LabVIEW you may use external components too. There is no way to create such ports directly.