LINX / LabView 2020 Community Edition on MacOS 11.1 BigSur for Arduino Nano

[matteo.ago]

Dear all,

I start this thread apologizing if this is not the right place to talk about this topic. Every suggestion to move this thread elsewhere is welcome.

Since I finally succeeded in connecting an Arduino Nano with LabView 2020 on MacOS Big Sur I wanted to share my story such that it may be useful to others. I actually did a lot more than the steps that are reported below, but I'm sharing only the steps that I think were really useful to reach the goal. Nonetheless, I can also share the other things I did upon request.

STEP 0: Setup and required software

• MacOS BigSur

• Arduino Nano connected via USB
• LabView 2020 Community Edition
• VI Package Manager Community Edition
• Arduino IDE

STEP 1: VIPM LINX Toolkit download

The first problem I encountered was that VIPM was not able to install any package (Error 7). This was solved by changing the LabView 2020 app-bundle read/write permission through terminal (sudo chmod -R u=rwx,g=rwx,o=rwx <LabView app/folder path>). After that you can install the LINX Toolkit with all its dependencies via VIPM. Restart LabView after the package installation.

STEP 2: Manual LINX firmware installation on Arduino Nano

LINX firmware wizard does not work on MacOS. Therefore, you need to manually install the LINX firmware on the Arduino Nano. To do so, open LabView, Tools->MakerHub->LINX->Generate Firmware Libraries... select the Arduino IDE folder for generating your LINX firmware libraries.

Next, close LabView and open the Arduino IDE. On the green toolbar in the code editor window, click on the "open" icon, go to libraries->LINX->ArduinoNano compile and then load the firmware onto your Arduino. Close the Arduino IDE and press Reset on the Arudino.

STEP 3: Check the LabView connection

You should now be able communicate with Arduino through LabView! To check that everything is working properly, open the Blink (simple) example located in the LabView app/folder->vi.lib->MakerHub->LINX->LMH-LINX.lvproj (Examples tab). Run this VI, you should be able to manually light up the built-in LED (digital pin 13) on your board.

Hope this also works for you! I'll be happy to give further info if needed.

-Matteo

[mazine96]

Dear sir even the library doesnt work on my mac it keep opening as a front panel file

[matteo.ago]

Hi, which step are you stuck on?

[rolfk]

Ahhhh. Linx is currently not supported for Linux and Mac. That is why it is not included in the Community Installer for these platforms.

NI had two big fish to fry for the community release on these platforms. One was some form of license control, the other porting the Linx Toolkit to these platforms. They tackled the first albeit with some problems left to work out it seems, but didn’t manage the second to finish.

A Community Edition without Linx Toolkit is quite useful to a bunch of people, but a release without some license control would have killed sales of LabVIEW for these platforms pretty much completely.

[chmalbert]

Thank you for your post

I was unable to pass the second step since when trying to generate firmware libraries, the vi called Generate firmware librairies is unable to launch. The Close input Device vi which is windows specific is not found.

how do you by pass this problem ?

Sincerely

Charles

[rolfk]

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@chmalbert wrote:

how do you by pass this problem ?

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Not! Sorry! I haven't tried to use Linx on the Mac so far. Would love to, but have about half a zillion other projects lingering higher in the list and only one of them is on the Mac. It's to make Lua for LabVIEW and the OpenG ZIP library to run on the Mac without any error.

[chmalbert]

Thank you for your post

I was unable to pass the second step since when trying to generate firmware libraries, the vi called Generate firmware librairies is unable to launch. The Close input Device vi which is windows specific is not found.

how do you by pass this problem ?

Sincerely

Charles