Using the Thermotron 2800 with LabVIEW 2015

[asand142]

I am trying to communicate with a Thermotron 2800 controller using LabVIEW 2015. I have downloaded the LabVIEW drivers from Thermotron's website (https://thermotron.com/service-2/instrument-drivers/) but when I try to deploy to my PXI-8186 I get this error
"TH4800 IVI Error Converter.vi loaded with errors on the target and was closed.
LabVIEW: Failed to load shared library TH4800.dll:TH4800_GetErrorInfo:C. Ensure that the library is present on the RT target. Use either MAX to install NI software or FTP to transfer custom libraries to the RT target.
LabVIEW: Failed to load shared library TH4800.dll:TH4800_error_message:C. Ensure that the library is present on the RT target. Use either MAX to install NI software or FTP to transfer custom libraries to the RT target."

I have looked and found previous forum post that looked like they resolved this or similar enough an issue that it could have helped but the links to some ni.com resource no longer work.

[Frozen]

---

@asand142 wrote:

... when I try to deploy to my PXI-8186 I get this error
"blah blah blah Failed to load dll. blah blah..."

---

My first guess is that you failed to include the DLL in the deployment package.

Have you followed the rest of the advice in the error message?

---

Use either MAX to install NI software or FTP to transfer custom libraries to the RT target.

---

Good luck

[asand142]

The .dll doesn't appear as an option in MAX for install onto the target, and when I deploy the .vi to the target I don't get an option of what to include with it. I have tried transferring the file directly but don't know where to place it in the target directory, so everywhere I have tried putting it has had no effect.

[zou]

Are you using MS Windows?

[rolfk]

---

@zou wrote:

Are you using MS Windows?

---

The PXI-8186 is a very old animal  (Releases date <= 2003). As such the only OS it will run is NI Pharlap ETS. While Pharlap ETS was Win32 compatible and could load Windows 32-bit DLLs, that was 20 years ago, when DLLs were compiled in Visual Studio 6.0. You will be hard pressured to find any such DLLs nowadays unless someone goes to great lenghts.

All DLLs created since Visual Studio 2003 require a version specific Microsoft C Runtime library. NI ported specific version of that library to Pharlap ETS and lets you install them onto the system but they are already old too. Without the correct Runtime library installed, a DLL deployed to that controller will be unloadable, since it is missing the C Runtime Library dependency.

Supported C Runtime Libraries that NI lets you install are:

MSVC 7.1 (Visual Studio 2003)

MSVC 9.0 (Visual Studio 2008)

MSVC 10.0 (Visual Studio 2010)

If your DLL is not compiled in one of these (or Visual Studio 6) then it can not be loaded on the NI Pharlap ETS system.

And if you ask why there are no later Visual Studio versions supported? Well Interval Zero announced around 2010 that Pharlap ETS is considered to be not fit for further development and they eventually EOLed it around 2012 officially and definitely. Obviously NI couldn't just abandon it, they still didn't have NI Linux RT, but they also didn't invest anymore into it other than what was needed to keep it working.

[zou]

I used Thermotron 8800 last year, it uses SCPI commands.

If 2800 supports SCPI, you can build your own driver using 8800 as an example.

[rolfk]

The 2800 is a very old device, ca 1985 and it does not support SCPI (that was only defined a few years later).

The actual manual seems difficult to find (some Amazon seller wants to separate from it for $ 250) but this link might help. It should be fairly easy to program this all in native LabVIEW VIs using VISA.

Note: sorry that link is for the 8800 and isn't really SCPI either, but somewhat resembles it a little.

However, I did take a look at the driver as can be downloaded here. The 2800/4800 mentioned there under the LabVIEW 7.1 heading is a IVI driver programmed in LabWindows CVI. As such there is actually a good chance that it could be made to work if you install the LabWindows CVI runtime library version somewhere around 7.1 to maybe 8.5 or 9.0.

Download is here: https://www.ni.com/nl-nl/support/downloads/software-products/download.labwindows-cvi-runtime.html#35...

After you installed it on your computer you will have to go into NI-Max and select your PXI-8186 and install the according support into your controller.