PXIe-8135RT and RS-232 port

[xl600]

There doesnt seem to be a driver or supporting VI's for using the RS232 port on my 8135RT controller.  Does anyone know how I can get this port operating?  I have a device which uses rs232 and I would like to get that connected through my Labview RT project. 

Thanks,

XL600

[Duffy2007 · Accepted solution]

Hello xl600,

Is NI VISA and NI Serial installed on the system?
Are the ports shown in MAX, there you have the option to give the ports alias names and with the NI-VISA functions you can access these ports.

[Bob_Schor]

VISA drivers handle most (all?) serial interface (including RS-232) devices.  Open MAX, find your controller, and see what it calls the Remote Serial Port.  

Oops, I just did this, myself, and to my surprise, I don't see it on the PXI controller that is the RT Target on my machine.  Just a sec while I look at my RT Project ...

Here's the code I used to open the Serial Port (I'm both sending commands and receiving data from this device).  I don't currently remember how I determined the correct I/O port, but this code runs properly.

Bob Schor

[xl600]

Max doesn't display anything about the ports on the controller,  If I try to add a COM port, it claims the device isn't present.  So I checked the VISA driver installation and everything was installed properly.

I installed the NI-Serial driver, even though NI's description of it doesn't mention anything about supporting the built in serial port.  NI claims it only supports the PXI and PXIe add-on cards listed here.

Sure enough, as soon as it was installed, COM1 suddenly claimed it was present and the description turned to "Built in RS 232".

Thanks for the hints!

XL600

[Bob_Schor]

Aha!  Now I remember that for the PXI that is actually connected to my Serial device (i.e. the PXI where I actually want to use the COM port), I also installed the Serial Driver.  The PXI system hooked up to my Development machine (to test the RT code) had the VISA drivers, but not Serial RT, and showed no COM port.  I just installed Serial RT, and, sure enough, there is ASRL1::INSTR "COM1" under Devices and Interfaces.

A Kudo is on the way ...

Bob Schor