Bryan

Damn, who here doesn't work indirectly or directly with crelf... besides me?

Most non-NI I/O cards I've had to deal with come with (or you can find on the web) DLLs and documentation on the functions and how to use them. If you're able to find the same for your card, you may be able to use the "Call Library Function" VI, which is much easier to use than the CIN (which I have personally never attempted except in trying to learn how... without success).

So, you mean creating a dialog or something that will run only the first time the application is run that prompts the user for the password (software key) provided by moephunk or his company?

I didn't mean to insult anybody or anything by saying what I said (my brother actually had problems with spelling in school). I was talking about people who do it out of general laziness and/or don't even try, not out of their own abilities or limitations. It just irritates me, just like someone writing in all caps when it's not necessary.

I apologize if I offended anyone, it wasn't my intent

I believe that I communicate better in written form than orally. I don't know if my mind is going faster than I have the ability to move my mouth and get them out or what. Occasionally I'll be in a hurry and let written mistakes slip, but I try not to.

I also think that how someone communicates in written form (especially on the internet) is a good indication of their credibility, thoroughness and respect for their audience. The way some kids communicate on the web nowadays irks the living hell out of me. One of my friends has a point though. He said that written and oral communication has evolved to what it is today and is still evolving. My only qualm is that it seems like we went from primitive pictographs to written text and are now going to 'internet shorthand' and on the road back to pictographs.

Back to my LabVIEW stuff though. I've had times where I've generated an application or program that is neat and tidy as well as (what I perceive to be) well laid out and efficient... to the best of my knowledge/ability. Only thing is that nobody else gets to see it. I've wanted to create my own LabVIEW programming samples to provide with a resume, but never have time to develop my own, and the ones I've created are proprietary intellectual property of the companies for which I've worked. Someday hopefully, I'll get around to creating some that's MINE.

Gary, it's funny that we have so much in common. I've ordered my state flags in order of residency. I'm a PA native, but moved from PA > CA > VA. If yours are ordered similarly, it looks like you went from VA to CA.

Another option is to put yourself out there into the community. Some of us around here have done that and are still doing it. Put together some code and submit it to the CR. It will make you feel better. Nothing beats the warmth of the LAVA flow...

I actually have something I created as a quick tool that I could submit. I need to clean it up a bit and add some functionality I've been thinking about as well as documentation before I submit it (I'm sure someone has already created something like it though). My problem is just getting time to spend on it right now. My son and work pretty much dominate my day.

There ya go!

Someone should do a VI that will generate all of the possible letter and capitalization combinations for the word "LabVIEW" and post it in this thread.

I'd do it, but unfortunately, after my morning slack time is over, I'll be spending all day with my head in a machinery control system.

Holy cow, Elmer Fudd has hacked this thread!

Spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes are a pet peeve of mine, especially on the internet (my mom is a reading specialist, so she pounded it into me).

This has earned me the title of "Grammar Nazi" on one of the online BBs I administer. It was originally intended to be an insult to me, but I embraced it.

I always try to put in LabVIEW properly, but sometimes I'm in a hurry, or just feeling lazy.

LaBvIeW lAbViEw

Willingness to move has never been a problem for me since my wife and I embrace opportunity for something new... however, I now have a 1 yr old and can definitely understand how it gets more complicated and even more when they get older.

Also, the point on having someone on the inside... it makes complete sense, and that's how I got my current job. I never would have if it handn't been for JRH.

My last job I got becuase I was one of very few applicants... I desperately needed a job (Corning had just downsized their photonics division and I was one of many victims) and they desperately needed a LabVIEW programmer.

I've never hidden the fact that I didn't have a Bachelor's Degree. I've actually put it out there... probably more than I should to show that I'm being honest and straightforward. I also agree that not having a degree leaves me with a lot of holes in my knowledge as far as being an engineer is concerned. I desperately want to go to school, but with a kid and house that needs constant attention, it feels impossible to devote any time to anything other than my source of well-being (work) and my family/home.

I'm glad to see so much understanding and advice for my point of view. I also think that I'm probably somewhat over-ambitious and set myself up for disappointment at times. A man feels whole when he feels that there's something about him that gives him that extra edge. I've been complimented... sometimes daily on my ability and knowledge and willingess and quickness to learn despite my educational background. Even being told that if I had a 4-yr, I'd be dangerous (in a good way). It's a good feeling and keeps my ethic and enthusiasm alive... but then there are times when reality hits and pulls me down, drowning the motivation and enthusiasm.

Maybe I just need a :beer:

If you're looking for a warm climate and a company that values passion and talent (especially WRT LabVIEW), check out JKI.

Cheers,

Man, when I was living in California (Moved to VA in 9/04), if I would have known JKI would be even REMOTELY interested in hiring me... I would have been there in an instant. Hell, my first and I think only PM correspondence with you through this board was back when I lived in Orange County... just before I moved here.

I'm not so much looking for a job as looking at my possibilities. I have a friend who lives in NC and another one moving there soon and the idea of looking for a job there crossed my mind... so I did a monster search and found a position open with an NI Alliance partner (the position is actually posted on this board too), but when I saw 'bachelor's with 3.0 GPA required', it brought all of this up. Back when I was looking to move back here to the east, I had a problem finding companies interested in me because I didn't have a bachelor's, even though I was CONFIDENT that I would be able to meet their needs for a LabVIEW programmer based on their position descriptions. Sperry was the only one willing to take me and that was through John.

Well, it's comforting to see that I'm not the only one. It sucks though that so many companies will pass up enthusiasm and talent for an expensive piece of paper. But, I guess the paper guarantees certain competencies.

Crelf, thanks for the link, but MI is too cold for me.

Okay... I don't know if I'm having somewhat of a depressing day or what, but I was thinking of my experience, background and knowledge and was wondering what I'm "worth" to an employer as far as a test engineer/labview programmer.

I've worked for 3 different companies and have done LabVIEW in all of them. I've only ever had LabVIEW Basics I, but have been using learning and developing in LabVIEW since 1999. I've used LabVIEW with serial, gpib, vision, pxi, analog/digital I/O, TCP/IP & UDP etc, I've been using TestStand for a year now (no formal training) and have integrated LabVIEW into some pretty custom/complicated applications. I've learned a lot about LabVIEW software architecture and useage and am always eager to learn more. I would typically consider myself to be a "good", advanced LabVIEW programmer (compared to most of you guys, I'm not, but have been relative to the experience at some of my companies). I've designed and built test fixtures and done LOTS of engineering work.

But here's the thing... I have an associates degree in Fiber Optics and Electronics. I've been titled an "Engineer" at this company and my last, and have been told countless times that I perform well within an engineer's level, even moreso than some of our degreed engineers. Only problem is that my tangible "certifications" limit me career-wise and have often prevented me from getting jobs that I really wanted... including but not limited to self employment and NI Alliance partners. I'd LOVE to get a job with an NI Alliance partner because then I would be GUARANTEED to be doing just what I enjoy... LabVIEW and NI stuff. I would love even more to find a place willing to help fund my LabVIEW/TestStand development and even help me gain certification. I'm a quick learner, so this wouldn't require much patience. It's tough with my current job as LabVIEW and NI stuff involves a small portion of my job. I'd love it to BE my job. Hell, to get my current job I just about begged John Howard (former board member before he moved to the mountains... "JRH") to test my LabVIEW knowledge so that I could prove to him that I knew my stuff. (LV2-style functional global knowledge I think got me in )

I guess bottom line is that I feel like I'm worth something as a LabVIEW programmer/Test Engineer... but when I start looking at job postings and comparing myself to other LabVIEW gurus, it diminishes my view of my own competence.

On the plus side however... I can advertise myself like: "Get an Engineer's work without having to pay an Engineer's salary". Only problem is that I want the Engineer's salary, so that would only really get me in the door. I'm sure if a potential employer were to take the time and sit down with me to discuss my experience and relative work-history and set degree aside, I'd be able to prove myself competent. Sadly though, you have to impress them enough on paper to even get to that point (interview). Without the often sought after line items (degree, GPA), it's tough to get.

Well, I've been using mandrake 10.1 because of it's ability to install to and run from a USB HDD without modification. I've been using this drive for testing of multiple OS-less units (it allows us to exercise I/O without having to install an OS and test apps), but I also do my development on it as well. I've installed 10.1 in a Virtual machine on my desktop so that I don't have to do development on the drive.

I'm not at a very good point now to try the Mandrake upgrade and pray that it will work on my bootable HDD. I don't want to risk breaking what already is working for us. I'm also somewhat of a Linux novice (I know just enough to be dangerous), so doing the Mesa upgrade probably isn't something I want to bother taclking at the moment.

Thanks anyway for all your help! At the very least, I know what I need to do if I get to the point I can upgrade to 8.2 in Linux. Most of the stuff I do is in Windows anyway, just this one part of a current project involves Linux.

Virtual PC (Windows), the 2004 version that Microsoft is/was offering for free a little while ago. I've tried to install packages for it, but won't do it for Linux.

I'm actually (at the moment) running Manrake as a Virtual Machine on my office desktop computer which uses a Matrox dual-head video card (Millenium P650)

I'll give those commands a shot and let you know. Thanks again!

--UPDATE--

Nope, still does it.

As I said before, I'm using a Matrox Millenium P650 video card, running Mandrake 10.1 on a Virtual Machine on my Windows XP Professional desktop computer.

No problem. I'm not in a hurry to get this up and running at the moment, but I do want to get it running at some point.

I've attached the files as requested. Thanks for your help!

Download File:post-404-1160389352.txt

Download File:post-404-1160389360.txt

I forwarded this link to some colleagues at work and it spread like wildfire:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.break.com/MTU1MDg2"></param><embed'>http://embed.break.com/MTU1MDg2"></param><embed src="http://embed.break.com/MTU1MDg2" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

EOL characters. Windows uses \r\n for an EOF, Linux uses \n. Best way around it is to make sure you use the EOF constant in the strings palette instead of putting your own in. Linux for LV and Win automatically ensure that these constants are right for the OS used.

May not be an issue for you, but in my Win >> Linux experiences, this is the only thing that bit me so far.

I did as requested and couldn't believe that it generated an 8MB file! I gzipped it down to 600-ish K.

Now it seems when I start LabVIEW 8.2 that if I just let it sit for a little while at the welcome screen, it will shut down on it's own. I looked at the file created a little and saw things that said "File not found". Can't figure out why it wouldn't see them.

Download File:post-404-1159530549.gz

Thanks for the link. It was actually a reminder. I had that issue with 7.1 and Fedora and had to do the tune2fs. I didn't have to do it when I installed 7.1 on Mandrake 10.1 for some reason. Mandrake had just become Mandriva at that time I believe (although I still hear it called Mandrake).

I tried it and had the same problem. The NI Knowledge Base says that problem was fixed in 7.1.1, so I would assume it would be in 8.2 as well.

Any other ideas?

I've had LabVIEW 7.1 running successfully on Mandrake 10.1 for almost 2 years now. I just yesterday installed 8.2 (7.1 still installed) and have had problems getting it to do anything but load.

I don't think it's related to having 7.1 on board, but anytime I try to create a new VI or anything, LabVIEW closes. I'm able to create a new project, and items within a project, but as soon as I try to open/edit anything, it closes.

I launched LabVIEW 8.2 from a command prompt and when it closed I got the following error:

LabVIEW caught fatal signal

8.2 - Received SIGSEGV

Attempt to reference address: 0x0

Segmentation fault

Anyone have any ideas?

Congrats man!

I'm still waiting/looking for an excuse & the money to take the test. If I were ballsy enough to take the risk and strike out on my own, I'd go for it. Where I work now, getting certification wouldn't benefit me at all.

Going through step by step is definitely what I need to do... finding time to do it right now is difficult.

It's getting clearer as I go. Props again to you and Jim for creating this stuff!

Never say never!!

I've been learning that the hard way lately

Thanks for the reply.

You're right as to how I was going about it. I got about halfway thorugh this and figured I wasn't going about it the right way. Something just seemed off.

I have been looking at the tutorials, but have been having a hard time absorbing it. I seem to be having a bout of temporary 2-week ADD or something... nothing seems to be sinking in.

I've since deleted this little project and am trying another route. I'm going to look at the DataIO tutorial again. I've actually read the manual (something I never do I might add), but I'll need to go through it again now that I'm fully awake.