LabView and 3rd party USB

[Dennis_Knutson]

If the instrument is USBTMC, then you will have gotten a driver (.inf) from the vendor and the device will show up in MAX and if I remember correctly, in windows device manager as USBTMC. Did you get any sort of driver from the vendor? If so, how is the device listed by windows?

[Mubi]

Hello Dennis,

Actualy I got two main dll files from the vendor one is for the user interface which have no other information e.g. header file or the information about the function prototype.

Second dll is in the drivers folder, (as far as I understand that dll contain the functions for communication between the PMBus and the POL(point of load) embeded on my USB evaluation board and now I was trying to call that dll in labview but unfortunately I dont have the function prototype information of this file as well)  and this DLL have an .inf file (as you mentioned). and in device manager I can see that usb hardware under "Universal Serial Bus Controller" by the name of that device specifically, which is "Zilker Labs PMBus Interface"

Buttt still I am not able to decide if this device is a USBTMC because I cant see this device in MAX 😞 . (I take what you said is like when I connect my USB device it will automatically come in MAX)

1)- Can you help me to find out if this device is USBTMC?

2)- Can I call this dll (device or dll in driver folder) via NI-VISA with out the header file or function prototype information in case if this a USBTMC ?

Thanks For Help In Advance 🙂

Mubi

[Dennis_Knutson]

No, it is not USBTMC. It would be listed as such.

You've already been told that using NI-VISA is an alternative to using the dll. You DO NOT call a dll with NI-VISA. You either need to get header and api information from the vendor regarding the dll, get low level USB RAW information from the vendor to create your own driver (difficult and unlikely), use a USB sniffer todetermine the protocol (tedious and difficult), use the VB code to determine the dll calls, or since it is an evaluation board, send it back because you do not have enough documentation to use it. The threat of the last should be enough for the vendor to provide some documentation.

[JohnCS]

Is your device a ZL 200XEV1 board or from that family from Ziker Labs or Intersil? 

If so, are you using the USB to SMB interface, ZLUSBREF01, or something similar from them and,  finally, are you using the PowerNavigator software application?

[Mubi]

My divce is not from the Zilkerlabs but the drivers for communication between the usb and the PMBus were written by the ZilkerLabs, I am using the USB port for communication between my hardware and the computer, and I am not using the PowerNavigator software application .

[Mubi]

Can any one provide an example of how to call a .NET dll from Labview 2009

[Mubi]

As I have the VB.NET "dll" and I want to call that dll from the Labview, I will be thanks full if someone can give the answers for my following questions,

1)- How can I call that VB.net DLL from the Labview. (If someone can give me some examples or any tutorial explaning this?)

2)- As I have the .net dll so is it still important to know the function prototype of the functions inside of that dll ?

Best Regards,

[smercurio_fc]

If you have a .NET assembly then you would use the .NET functions. There are numerous examples that ship with LabVIEW showing you how to use .NET in LabVIEW. There's also a section in the LabVIEW Help. There are also numerous examples on the NI site which you can find by simple searching.

If you have a .NET assembly then you would not need to know the function prototype. When you select a method the node will adjust based on the arguments for the method. For regular datatypes like strings and numerics you will get the appropriate datatype for the parameter. In other cases LabVIEW makes its best guess. If the parameter is another .NET datatype, then you would need to create that class. As always, the documentation for the assembly will have information on how to use it. 

[Mubi]

Hello ,

I already call a C/C++ dll from the LabView and Now I want to know that if I have to write some kind of the LabView program inorder to be able to use that DLL ?

I will appretiate if some one can help me how to use the dll after calling it from the LabView (e.g I have the hardware device and I want to control that hardware from the Labview insimple case to on and off the device from that interface which I got after calling it from the LabView) 

[smercurio_fc]

Your question doesn't make much sense. If you're already calling the DLL from LabVIEW, what are you considering to be a different operation to use the DLL from LabVIEW?