adressing a serial port

[Y3G]

Hi,

I would like to build a simple Pulse Generator (DC ON/DC OFF) by using the Serial port pin 3. Currently I am using my USB-Serial converter which is recognized by COM8 of my laptop.

Years ago I (LabView 7.0) did this with simply addressing a register and sending serial data. Now I use LV 9 on Windows 7 and don't find any resources on that.

Thanks for any help

Y3G

[smercurio_fc]

Well, you could certainly do it that way, though it won't be a very good pulse since it will be software controlled. Don't know what you used in LabVIEW 7.0, but to do serial stuff you'd use VISA. So you'd create the "message" you want to send and use VISA Write to send it. You can look at the examples that ship with LabVIEW on how to use VISA to do serial control. If you don't have VISA then you should install it.  VISA property nodes also give you access to control some of the lines on the serial port, such as CTS, DTS, DTR, etc, but not for controlling the TX line directly.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The register control was done with the in port/out port functions and an example for manipulating the parallel port still ships with LabVIEW. You could only use those functions on a built in serial port. A USB to RS232 is not at all similar. Go with the control lines as already suggested.

[Coq_Rouge]

You can not use the transmit data line this way. However the data flow control lines may be used this way. Just remember that the output on the pins will be inverted.