SERIAL READ -- walkthrough?

[antoniogatta]

I'm monitoring a frequency signal from an inverter but
theres too much noise in the line to get a clean read in
LabVIEW.. however, I've got a multimeter that does
the trick fine.

Now i'm trying to get this data into LabVIEW.

My multimeter (Extech 382860) wires to my PC through
a serial port. The software that came with the meter works
fine but I can't get Labview to read the data at the serial port.

nb: i'm using labview's SimpleSerialRead.vi
the meter is connected and reading (frequency) data,
but my simple read vi doesn't report anything at
the serial port.

am i using this wrong?
shouldn't i at least see *something* there?

[aderogba]

Try out your commands and com settings with terminal emulator programs like HyperTerminal. If you have windows it should be under Communications in Accessories. Also check to make sure you have the right type of cable (pin connections), com port configuration, commands, and transmission control characters. This information should be available in the manual(s) for the equipment you want to communicate with. You can get additional information from the following link as well.

http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RPAGEID=137&HOID=5065000000050000008E7C0000&HTHREAD=000031886&UCATEGORY_0=_246_%24_13_&UCATEGORY_S=0

[Russ@Davis]

Using a terminal emaulater is the only way to go to first establish and understand communications with a device. Once you understand what is happening there, it's generally quite simple use Labview to communicate with virtually any serial device!