LabView 7.1 to Present but what version would I require?

[MarkL81]

Hello, 

Do excuse my little knowledge of LabView and technical information, I have Been given the task of updating an old PC that is currently running LabView 7.1, So up dating the PC is the easy bit, But what version of the LabView software would be required. I'm assuming the basic version would be suffice but its probably best to get some input first. The current PC & LabView takes data from 2 pressure sensors a temperature sensor, and has specified parameters, Calculating Air watts when air is sucked through a large metal box with internal pressure sensor and 10 different size orifice plates over a 5 second period on each plate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[LLindenbauer]

Is the program running in the development environment or is it a compiled executable?

Does it depend on external libraries to run?

How are the Sensors connected?

[billko]

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@MarkL81 wrote:

Hello, 

Do excuse my little knowledge of LabView and technical information, I have Been given the task of updating an old PC that is currently running LabView 7.1, So up dating the PC is the easy bit, But what version of the LabView software would be required. I'm assuming the basic version would be suffice but its probably best to get some input first. The current PC & LabView takes data from 2 pressure sensors a temperature sensor, and has specified parameters, Calculating Air watts when air is sucked through a large metal box with internal pressure sensor and 10 different size orifice plates over a 5 second period on each plate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

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This is such a huge jump in both operating system and LabVIEW versions, that it might be wiser to convince the Powers That Be not to update it.  You might be okay if it is simply something simple like the instrument is hooked up to a serial port, but if it's a card in the PC, you might not find drivers for it, or the bus that the card uses is so old that you need to buy a new card.  If it's some kind of DAQ instrument (which this setup might very well be), it will take some real LabVIEW expertise to get it up and running.

[JÞB]

Well, let me give you a little advice. 

What you seam to be describing is that you have an "Obsolescence Mitigation" project.  I assume you are running old code written about 20 years ago in version 7.1 and executing in the development environment. 

You are going to run into PROBLEMS you do not foresee because you are not experienced enough to anticipate them.  On the positive side,  you actually are intelligent enough to ASK FOR ADVICE!  A rare and welcome quality that I appreciate. 

What you should have.

• A new deployment PC. You will find no device drivers that will support both LabVIEW 7.1 and a new version so, as soon as you install new software your old code WILL NOT RUN!  Leave the existing system alone until the new code is ready and tested then mothball the obsolete machine. 
• A DEVELOPMENT machine.  That has access to these forums and sits conveniently in a nice workspace.  This PC should have a LabVIEW Pro license.
• A Source Code Control repository.  Tortoise svn is free and Viewpoint Systems offers the TSVN toolkit free that works directly with the LabVIEW Development Environment (other options exist but, I like those tools) I have no business relationship with them.

In THEORY your new target PC could simply have the free LabVIEW Runtime Engine and run the Executable Application you build on the Development Machine. If you had the necessary expertise to get away with that approach you would not have posted this excellent question!  So, install a LabVIEW Debug Deployment License on the new station.  The cost to your employer will be more than saved in your hourly wage or, you really need to negotiate a raise.  I'll let you in on a secret,  I ALWAYS use a Debug Deployment for the first unit station then recover the license before delivery and recycle the license for the next project. (Unless the customer pays for the key, then I add the cost to time and materials and charge the markup)

You will have other questions soon. I imagine your hardware is obsolete as well an DAQmx didn't exist in 7.1 post em when you need to.

Now, just to help you please the accountant. 

The LabVIEW pro license and SSP are CAPITAL expenses and include access to online training you WILL NEED.

The SCC repository should be hosted on existing IT resources 

The Deployment machine is a project expense.

The Debug Deployment license could be either project or capital depending on how you deliver.

[BertMcMahan]

OP, are you hoping to just upgrade this and be done with it, or do you need long term modifications, support, etc? Lots of LabVIEW contractors do upgrades like this pretty frequently. Some of my past customers just need their computers updated and the software patched and fixed to work with the newest Windows, then don't need to mod it anymore after I've done the "hard part" of updating all the drivers.

And as others have mentioned, hardware is going to be tricky. If you have DAQ devices you will probably need to purchase new versions of those.

Unless you really want to learn how to program LabVIEW, you'd probably be better off hiring a consultant to take care of it. They'll be able to do it much faster than you'll be able to learn LabVIEW from scratch, and you'll save some money in the long run.

[MarkL81]

Hi LLindenbauer,

The program is launched through LabView.

It doesn't use a external library and the sensors are connected to Labjacks then to the computer by USB ports.

[MarkL81]

Hi Bill,

As you have said there is a huge jump in operating system and software. I was looking at the task in a rather naive way thinking that we could rewrite the program (copying the old program) using newer software and new operating system. The sensors are connected to Labacks to USB  port. 

Mark

[santo_13]

Now bringing Labjack into the equation, do you know if there are supported drivers for the OS+device combo and whether the driver APIs are matching the ones you used long back.

[LabJackSupport]

@MarkL81, what LabJack device are you using?

Many of our LabVIEW examples are maintained in LabVIEW 7.1 for backwards compatibility and have been verified to work in newer versions of LabVIEW (up to LabVIEW 2020 currently). We expect you should be able to update the LabJack related dependencies without much issue. Most of our examples work by making calls to our C APIs with Call Library Function Nodes; we have software installers for all of our past devices that work on Windows 10:

https://labjack.com/support/software/installers

[JÞB]

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@LabJackSupport wrote:

@MarkL81, what LabJack device are you using?

Many of our LabVIEW examples are maintained in LabVIEW 7.1 for backwards compatibility and have been verified to work in newer versions of LabVIEW (up to LabVIEW 2020 currently). We expect you should be able to update the LabJack related dependencies without much issue. Most of our examples work by making calls to our C APIs with Call Library Function Nodes; we have software installers for all of our past devices that work on Windows 10:

https://labjack.com/support/software/installers

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Nice to know! Wow! Pink error wires  you might want to update that with an actual code snippet !

I love the "Copyright 2001 - 2099" disclaimer. That is very proactive 😉