NI Instrument Driver Finder Dialog Box Closes if Not Connected to Internet

[Shawn_S.]

Hello!

For anyone who works on a PC that is not connected to the internet, but is is using a third party instrument, they could experience problems trying to view example VIs that ship with the instrument driver.

Currently with LV 2010, if one does not have an internet connection on a PC and navigates to Tools » Instrumentation » Find Instrument Drivers..., the NI Instrument Driver Finder Dialog Box will close after displaying the following pop up:

Please made the NI Instrument Driver Finder available for PCs not connected to the internet.

Since the customer already installed the driver for his third party device, the Agilent E8364C, I made him aware that all of the top level, demo VIs are located on his machine in the *.llb file of his driver under the instr.lib folder.  This work around will suffice for this customer, but anyone without knowledge of our directory structure would struggle with this.

Thanks!

Shawn S.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Shouldn't everyone be aware of the Measurement I/O palette where all of the drivers and functions reside? The example VIs are available from Help>Find Examples when using a project style driver.

[Shawn_S.]

The Measurement I/O palette will give you the VIs which can be used together to communicate with the third party device, not a working VI with notes, set up and ready to go.  Newer users will appreciate making access to these example VIs available offline and easier to find.  Also, these example VIs I'm referring to do not show up in Help » Find Examples.  They do, however, show up within the NI Instrument Driver Finder as outlined below:

[Dennis_Knutson]

Actually, that example that you are using does in fact show up in Help>Find Examples. And I still think going through the Instrument Finder to try a driver that is installed is a lot more tedious than right click Instrument I/O>Instrument Drivers.

[Shawn_S.]

I do not have the Instrument Drivers folder in my browse tab of the NI Example Finder dialog box.  However, I did find the Agilent 33xxx series VIs when I searched for "instrument" in the search tab of the NI EXample Finder dialog box.  To get this to work, I had to click Setup... in the bottom right hand corner of the dialog box, add all examples for every piece of hardware and check the boxes to display examples for LabVIEW 2010 and LabWindows/CVI 2010.

I noticed that none of the third party hardware was available in the Hardware dropdown in the bottom left hand corner of the dialog box.  Also, I'm still not sure how to add the Instrument Drivers folder.

Maybe this suggestion has morphed a bit.  I think that NI should include third party example code into the NI Example Finder Instrument Drivers folder by default and make the VIs searchable by default as well as include the third party hardware in our Hardware drop down.

[Brian_Powell]

A default LabVIEW installation should include the instrument driver examples.  In 2011, at least, the example finder has them under "Hardware Input and Output>>Instrument Drivers".

I think this idea should morph into, "Make instrument driver examples easier to find", and we should entertain all ideas for doing that.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Hardware Input and Output>>Instrument Drivers is no different than Hardware Input and Output>>DAQmx which new users also aren't be able to find based on how many questions are posted on that as well. For that matter, many new users seem totally oblivious to Help>>Find Examples altogether.

To avoid confusion, perhaps the help menu should change to "Find Instrument Drivers on NI.com".

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 2 kudos within 2 years after posting will be automatically declined.