Serial Communication non-reentrant and reentrant

[wohltemperiert]

Dear al, I've got an architectural question for the serial communication. I am currently working on a machine which is communicating with LabVIEW program on PC. There are totally 4 COM ports that are involved. COM1 (RS485) is used and shared by multiple threads/users, where as COM2, 3 and 4 (RS232) are used only by a its own thread. I created a VI for send and receive with time out and so on. In order to prevent race condition of access to COM1, this send receive VI is not re-entrant. On the other hand, however, I need this VI to be re-entrant, so that it can be used by communications of COM 2, 3 and 4. Do you know how I can solve this dilemma? Thanks a lot!

[crossrulz]

Sounds like you should be handling your serial communications with a Queued Message Handler.  Use queues to send message to other loops (the QMH) telling it to send, query, or just read the port.  Your message could include a queue reference for returning the data.

I covered this at my VI Week presentation: Proper way to communicate over serial

[wohltemperiert]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply and sharing your presentation! I'll watch it.

[drjdpowell]

You could also use a DVR, or similar mechanism, to manage access to a com port, instead of using a non-reentrant subVI.  

 

 

[wohltemperiert]

Thank you very much for your reply!

[wohltemperiert]

I talked to a friend of mine and his proposal is to use the VISA lock, which works in a similar way as DVR.

[Porter]

VISA locks behave strangely in my opinion: 

 

I still use them but wrapped in a single element queue.

This workaround was implemented in the Plasmionique Modbus Master's MB VISA Lock library. It is described in page 19 of the user guide:

https://lavag.org/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=14276

I also describe use cases on page 10 and 11 if you are interested,

I often use this VISA locking library for RS485 instruments that share the same COM port.

[wohltemperiert]

7 hours ago, Porter said:

VISA locks behave strangely in my opinion: 

 

I still use them but wrapped in a single element queue.

This workaround was implemented in the Plasmionique Modbus Master's MB VISA Lock library. It is described in page 19 of the user guide:

https://lavag.org/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=14276 1.08 MB · 1,807 downloads

I also describe use cases on page 10 and 11 if you are interested,

I often use this VISA locking library for RS485 instruments that share the same COM port.

Wow, thanks for your information. I wasn't aware of this behaviour at all and I was just about to implement the VISA lock solution. I will read it.