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Hello Martin, thanks very much! Back in 2008 I ceased the practice of including LabVIEW Run-Time (and other drivers) in my app installer, and have been installing those separately. I forgot about the run-time components selection, thanks for pointing that out, I'll try that. For the app today, I don't need any of the checked subcomponents below. Thanks for the link to your lvserial driver package. Brings back pre-VISA memories! -Joe

Hi Sergey - Thank you very much for the really helpful reply! That is a lot of good advice. I have some work to do. We do disable much Windows functionality using their "policy" editor. I didn't think of the NI Services that are enabled to start up with the system. I just looked at those: I'll experiment with how much of this I can disable and still have LabVIEW Run-Time execute properly! Good point about NI-VISA. Upon review, yes I am only using it for RS232 communication for this particular project. Thanks for mentioning the FTDI driver. You made me remember also the .NET SerialPort class that already resides in Windows. I just now wired up a few functions to remind myself how that class works: Thanks again, -Joe

Hi folks - I have to install a Labview program on a product's embedded Windows 10 computer that at this time has zero NI software on it. The program needs to run immediately after computer boot-up, do its thing in under a minute, and then quit. I really need this program to start running as quickly as possible, and then after quitting leave nothing NI-related running. Do any of you have experience with this kind of situation? Are there any INI file settings or other configurations that will make LabVIEW Run-Time and NI-VISA run with minimal overhead and minimal sub-processes? For example, I don't want any NI processes to look for network connectivity at all nor attempt to "phone home". Also, after quitting I could halt specific processes and services that NI has left running. Thanks very much, -Joe

Hi colleagues - Have any of you tried the new 4-hour hands-on-the-software Certified TestStand Developer exam? I have to renew soon, and I see that NI has changed the renewal from a multiple-choice test to a "practical" exam. How challenging did you find it? Was 4 hours enough time to get everything done fully? Thanks very much, Joe

Hi folks - I like coding in Python and I like the numpy, scipy, and matplotlib libraries which are pretty complete and powerful. I'd like to figure out how to make those tools practical to use in my industry work as an alternative to Labview. As people have pointed out, making a high-performance, practical, good-looking UI for Python is too difficult and slow to develop. I tried using the REMI UI library at home for fun, and here are a couple of videos: Thermistors_Triple Python Program on a Raspberry Pi Tcontrol_PWM Python Program on a Raspberry Pi Have any of you tried using NI's G Web Development Software as a UI for Python? I know that NI charges for the package, but that could be OK for most industry work. Is it practical to implement and responsive to interaction? I see on NI's website that they recommend the SystemLink API for bidirectional data communication between the WebVI and the Python program. Have any of you tried calling NI-DAQmx from Python for continuous data acquisition? Does it work? For instrument control via USB and Ethernet, fortunately more instrument vendors are providing a Python-compatible library, so they're taking on the tough work. Thanks very much, Joe

I find TestStand to be a powerful, flexible platform and a very cleverly designed product, with features really well targeted to manufacturing test. But you have to take the time to master it and digest it in order to make it look and behave like you want, rather than be constrained by it. I tried Test Executive Toolkit in '97 and TestStand in '09 and discarded them right away in frustration. And then I was forced to get "over the hump" and master TestStand 2014 and 2016 while at Sonos, and now I like TestStand a lot. I don't use TestStand at my current company because I can't justify the cost, and we're not at the mass-production stage yet. I see that the current cost is $5,561 per Development seat, $2,814 per station for the Debug version, and $741 per station for Base Deployment (or $581 per station for qty. 5). Just plain too much, and the Base Deployment is just the engine, no sequence editor. Dear NI - Please price TestStand at $2,500 per Development seat, and $150 per computer for the Base Deployment. You don't need a distinct Debug version (it's the same as the Development version anyway). Also, please advertise your TestStand product! Tell everyone about the new affordable pricing! NI will benefit from the increased sales volume, and TestStand users will benefit from having a larger community of users to talk to and meet with. 🙂

You're right, I was thinking about the 16-Jun-2020 "National Instruments is now NI" event. 😏

Maybe it will be a two-day version of last year's virtual event, with more new fonts, colors, and NI employees forced to repeat "so inspiring". 🙃

Thanks hooovahh, I tried it in Labview 2018. Using the OpenG 'Array of Vdata to Vcluster_ogtk.vi' followed by the Variant To Data function works in my application, without using a malleable VI. Using the Database Variant To Data function alone can be wired successfully but generates a run-time error because my cluster includes some elements which are arrays. Thanks again for the hint. -Joe

Hi hooovahh - I'm upgrading my operation from LV 2015 to LV 2018 and would like to redo your Array Of Variant To Cluster XNode as a malleable VI. Do you think that makes sense, and do you have any pointers that would improve my chances of success? :-) Thanks very much. -Joe

Hey, guys, along the lines of this topic, I'm setting up to move my company forward in its Labview and Teststand versions. We're standardized on Labview 2015 SP1 f10 and Teststand 2016 f2, both 32-bit and both behaving well including running on Windows 10 64-bit. I'm thinking to move to Labview 2018 fn and Teststand 2017 fn. Should I do it now, and if so, should I try the 64-bit versions or is that still too risky? Also, although Teststand 2017 doesn't "officially" support Labview 2018 (http://www.ni.com/teststand/product_lifecycle/), it should work OK I'm guessing. Thanks. -Joe

Hi wire-heads, Have any of you started using LabVIEW NXG for real projects? How finished and stable do you find it? Also, do you find that it can successfully co-exist with LabVIEW 2015-2017 on the same development machine? Thanks very much. -Joe

Will be happily attending this BBQ with you guys! This will be my first NIWeek after almost making the trip every year. Joe

This is quite a shock to my circannual rhythm. I've attended an NI event in a rented hall/ballroom in Mass. somewhere between Boston and Lowell, with NI hardware demos and Alliance vendor tables, every autumn for more than 20 years. I guess the world is going to change whether I like it or not. :-)

Looking at the webpage http://www.ni.com/nidays/ it looks like it's coming everywhere except the US and Africa. I missed NIWeek so I wanted to attend this. Well, Toronto isn't too far from me. :-/

It looks like, via some sort of twisted logic, the function is behaving as designed. See the KnowledgeBase article: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/BBB794BDCDE0B763862571D4007A0AA5 If the first element of the array is between the first elements of the lower and upper limit arrays, then the function returns True for 'In Range?', amazingly ignoring the remainder of the array.

This looks like a bug to me. Or is it expected behavior using some kind of vector logic? :-) When you run the attached VI, both Boolean LEDs should output False, but one is False and the other is True. I'm running LV 2015 f2. Thanks. -Joe Bug demo of In Range And Coerce.vi

Hey, Michael, I think that LAVA is great and I prefer it to the noise and style of the NI forums. Thanks for keeping it running. I appreciate the expertise, brightness, and time-generosity of the frequent posters here! I'm a very infrequent poster because my job takes all my time. I liked the Info-Labview email list, too, before I moved over to LAVA, but that list lingered way past its expiration, ha ha. I don't think LAVA is at that point, I think it's still great. 10 new topics per week rates as an active forum, and it looks like everyone gets replies to their questions. ShaunR hit the nail on the head about Labview stagnating for the last 5 years. You can see the slowdown in innovation, energy, and buzz. Probably this is natural given what's happening in high tech and computing. Labview is such a unique beast - beautifully engineered, hugely powerful, alone at the top as the best solution for test & automation. Engineers will continue to choose it as their platform, although it looks like zero growth in the new-adopters-per-year figure. It's weird for me to have spent half my life immersed in a single vendor's toolset. My livelihood is maybe too dependent on a thriving NI. But I still really enjoy the work, and there are not enough Labview experts to fill the demand. -Joe

What is this secret feature? Sounds good just from the name. Thanks.

To follow up on my original post: now that the Database Variant To Data function is included with Labview, I find that I can't go back to using it because it does not support cluster elements that are arrays. I've got used to hooovahh's Array Of Variant To Cluster XNode and have built code that processes clusters of arrays of clusters and so on.

ned wrote: Thanks. I am keeping within the same workspace. The different .lvproj files are in different folders within the workspace. I'll try as you say, leaving the global SCC configuration set to the original .lvproj I checked in, and I agree that it seems like it will work. New projects have their distinct .lvproj file checked in, so there is at least some connection there.

Hi, folks. I've successfully integrated my Labview code with my corporate Perforce source code control server. I got some help from a PDF document posted on NI.com titled Using Perforce With Labview (2009). However I have a question on whether I need to repeatedly point Labview SCC configuration to a different location every time I open a different Labview project file. The PDF document says: Is the author saying that I need to click Change and then navigate to a different SCC depot location for each different Labview project file I work on? And then does that project remember that depot location for next time it's opened, or is only one location remembered as the global Labview SCC configuration option? Thanks. -Joe Czapski

Uh oh. Does anyone know what happened to ftp://ftp.ni.com/support/softlib ???

Hi, folks. Do you know - is there a way using the Labview project installer building tool to give the user an installation options dialog right after he double-clicks setup.exe? The dialog would ask which kind of test station he wants to install, and then I need to install a different set of supporting files depending on his choice, along with the one EXE file. It would be nice if I could name the shortcuts differently, too, depending on his choice. Or maybe there's a better solution? Thanks very much. -Joe

Hey, thanks very much! I just tested this in my project and it works. I am all set. -Joe