RS232 on compact RIO with Veristand

[Cyril_25]

Hi, 

I would like to use the RS232 port on my compact RIO (9014) with Veristand 2011. 

but I don't know how to link the RS232 port with Veristand.

This RS232 links will allow me to send instructions and receive measure of an inverter.

Do you know how to do it? Any exemple ?

I'm creating a custom tools but I think it will only be available to control the RS232 port of my laptop and not RS232 port of my Compact RIO..... !

I have a driver made for Windows to control the inverter thanks to the RS232, can I still use it with Compact RIO ?

If you have any idea or exemple...... let me know

Regards

Cyril

[StephenB]

you will have to make a custom device. A good place to start is with the easy custom device tool: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-14654

[Cyril_25]

Hi, 

thanks I've already read it.

I've found 2 videos : 

the first is for RT Driver.vi

http://www.screencast.com/users/ThomasSandrisser/folders/Jing/media/4f8321b3-2a07-414f-877a-b21fce2f...

The second is for : Main Page  :

 http://www.screencast.com/users/ThomasSandrisser/folders/Jing/media/e419e74c-6ba5-4b6e-b73b-285335ee...

But I don't know how to create the Initialization.vi

Do you have any example of a RS232 custom Device please ?

Regards

Cyril Galmiche

[Cyril_25]

I'm really surprised we have to create a custom device to use the RS232 port of a compact RIO.And there is no custom device available for RS232 ....

Another Idea : 

Can I use the RS232 of my laptop, create a VI to send and receive data with Labview (Windows). Then create a custom page with Labview for Veristand. And finally use global variable to make a connection between the RS232 _VI and the custom page ?

Thanks for your help

Cyril

[StephenB]

The videos you found show how to do just about everything you need to do. Start with the custom device template tool here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2011\vi.lib\NI Veristand\Custom Device Tools\Custom Device Template Tool\Custom Device Template Tool.vi

And then follow what the video does.

However, note that the template doesn't do any of the string parsing or building you will need to do to complete the device. Since serial reads and writes are string data... and the channel data in NI VeriStand is double data... you must convert between the two. So for example, if you are reading or writing to power supply... you need to read the actual current string and convert that string into an actual current double value. This is normally not a problem since the other components in your system need engineering unit data anyway.

There will probably never be built in support for serial inside NI VeriStand. Nor will there be support for TCP, UDP, GPIB... etc. All of these protocols are lower level protocols that the user needs to put a layer above to get/set the exact data they need. NI VeriStand could never predict or have a reasonable GUI to set up the string parsing and string construction that the user would need. For example.... most people who say they need TCP are actually communicating to a custom target... and they need a custom TCP protocol.

Same thing for Serial.... most people who need serial are talking to a particular instrument that has a particular protocol... perhaps even has an instrument driver on www.ni.com/idnet. It would make the most sense for them to just implement that driver from ni.com/idnet into a custom device.