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What is the latest version of LabVIEW that is supported by the VirtualBench drivers?

I am considering buying a used Virtual Bench VB-8012 off of eBay. As far as I know, the drivers are completely free. I do not have a license for LabVIEW, so I use LabVIEW Community 2020 and 2021. I do have LabVIEW 2013 for one of the first myRIO packages, but I only use that to interact and program the myRIO (which has the same or even worse problem than the VirtualBench Software support).

 

However, the VirtualBench download page provides no information. The latest version is 19.0, which presumably only supports up through LabVIEW 2019. I do not know for sure though, because NI did not even bother to release a README or release notes for VirtualBench Software 19.0.

 

As far as I can tell, VirtualBench is being discontinued and deprecated by NI. This is especially so given the recent releases of the Analog Discovery Pro series by Digilent, an NI company.

 

To summarize:

  1. What is the latest version of LabVIEW that VirtualBench Software 19.0 supports?
  2. Why is NI not releasing updated versions of VirtualBench Software?
  3. Is the VirtualBench product being discontinued?
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@bmitc wrote:

To summarize:

  1. What is the latest version of LabVIEW that VirtualBench Software 19.0 supports?

The VirtualBench driver only supports through LabVIEW 2019.  However, you can use the VB-8012 with Digilent Waveforms.  So you should be able to use the Digilent Waveforms VIs package to control it with the latest version of LabVIEW.


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In addition, it is possible to get the VIs and palette working, but it's a bit of a hassle. The following articles cover how it's done:
https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000kJXVSA2&l=en-US

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000kJXaSAM&l=en-US

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I see that ADP 5250 is roughly the VB 8012 and that Digilent has taken over the VB line of software.

 

I am trying to get my old VB 8012 to be seen by the Digilent Waveforms SDK. It does not seem to be working for either USB or Network, though it can list it as an ADP5000 device.

 

Devices: 1 str:16
1: "VB8012-306CD7F" B2D17745-A779-5B1B-8F1C-17E3D6A8D45A
  flags:0350 sn:306CD7F product:30454 tcp:10.0.0.136:9090 fw:18.0.0f0

 

I tried removed the Virtualbench 19 software and drivers, then installing Digilent. It didn't work.

 

Thoughts?

 

Cheers,

Joe

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https://forums.ni.com/t5/VirtualBench/Digilent-ADP5250/m-p/4282214#M1497

 

After version 3.18.30 there is a regression which causes WaveForms to no longer work for VB8012.

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Virtual Bench VB8012, VB8034, VB8054 support is back since WaveForms version 3.19.29 (2023-03-24)

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@kovacslattila wrote:

Virtual Bench VB8012, VB8034, VB8054 support is back since WaveForms version 3.19.29 (2023-03-24)


I just installed WaveForms 3.20.1 and can confirm my VB-8012 works with it.  It even actually shows up as a VB-8012.  Now I just need to mess around with the Waveforms driver to use with a newer version of LabVIEW than 2019.


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You don't need WaveForms to use VB form LabVIEW.

 

The VB support packages are up to LV 2019 but the following can be copied to newer versions to have support:

 

C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2019\menus\Categories\Measurement\lci2.mnu like to 
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2022\menus\Categories\Measurement\lci2.mnu 
and
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2019\vi.lib\VirtualBench\*.* to
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2022\vi.lib\VirtualBench\*.*

 

There is also need for the USB driver and dll:
https://forum.digilent.com/topic/24267-adp5250-and-vb8012-question/?do=findComment&comment=71623 

https://forum.digilent.com/topic/20241-labview/?do=findComment&comment=67417

 

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