USB using NI 4350 Long term (weeks,months)

[Forrest]

Greetings:

I am getting frustrated with a USB problem with an NI 4350 that is connected either to a desktop, or a laptop

running Win XP sp2 , or Win 2000. Using Labview 7.1.1

The problem is that the communication will hang up and i have to unplug the usb connector when this happens

to reistablish the connection to the labview program, or have to reboot.

The program can run a day,hour, or a week before this happens. Debugging such randomness is very frustrating.

I have used a powerd Hub ( still crashes), Changed to another NI4350 (still crashes) , Shut off the USB reduce power

check on windows (still crashes).

The errors that i get in Labview are either -10800 or -10400.

I'm almost ready to put a watchdog timer in labview which will activate a relay and break the USB cable so that windos will reenumerate the device. !!!???

I do not know if i have a windows (ugh) problem or a NI4350 problem, or the USB enumeration problem.

I am using the NI4350 to send out 8 bits of Digital out and 24 bit voltage analog in (sequentially over and over again).

I have read that there might be a problem with over voltage on the Analog in on the NI4350, low power fram a USB power source and noise in the system.

An example program has been sent to NI and they repeated it with their NI4350. They Blame windows (ugh).

I do not have an USB hardware trouble shooter such as the Explorer200 or Explorer 110 ( www.usbtracker.com ) that i can pinpoint the problem.

I am beginning to think that the USB is not a reliable data acquisition buss for long term.??

Any Help from the community??

Thanks,

Forrest

[Jim Kring]

Hi Forrest,

That sounds frustrating. You've definitely done everything right: you have contacted NI, sent them an example, and documented your problem and how you recover from it. I guess that I would look for some solution that might allow you to "reconnect" with the DAQ device without having to physically unplug it.

There is probably a way to achieve this using Windows API calls -- but, I am not sure.

A quick Google search and following the first result to a USB Developers FAQ brought me to a FAQ entry called "How can my application reset, disable, or restart a USB device?". The answer says that "The DevCon example in the Windows DDK is a command-line utility that shows how to enable, disable, restart, update, remove and query devices using the SetupAPI and CfgMgr32 API functions". I did a search on the Microsoft Support Site for CfgMgr32 and the second search result was to the DevCon command-line utility page.

The DevCon utility is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. Using DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices. DevCon also provides information that is relevant to the driver developer and is not available in Device Manager.

The DevCon command-line utility page has a link to...

Download the DevCon package

You can call this program (DevCon.exe) using SystemExec.vi to execute it from the command-line.

Please let us know if this works, or if you have any other questions. I'm very interested because your problem might happen to the rest of us, and it would be comforting to know that there is a good work-around solution.

Good luck,

[Forrest]

Thanks:

I will check this out... Also i am trying to get a hardware USB checker like the USB explorer www.ellisys.com.

Maybe i can rent one somewhere.

Thanks for your help...

I'll keep you informed

Forrest

Hi Forrest,

That sounds frustrating. You've definitely done everything right: you have contacted NI, sent them an example, and documented your problem and how you recover from it. I guess that I would look for some solution that might allow you to "reconnect" with the DAQ device without having to physically unplug it.

There is probably a way to achieve this using Windows API calls -- but, I am not sure.

A quick Google search and following the first result to a USB Developers FAQ brought me to a FAQ entry called "How can my application reset, disable, or restart a USB device?". The answer says that "The DevCon example in the Windows DDK is a command-line utility that shows how to enable, disable, restart, update, remove and query devices using the SetupAPI and CfgMgr32 API functions". I did a search on the Microsoft Support Site for CfgMgr32 and the second search result was to the DevCon command-line utility page.

The DevCon command-line utility page has a link to...

Download the DevCon package

You can call this program (DevCon.exe) using SystemExec.vi to execute it from the command-line.

Please let us know if this works, or if you have any other questions. I'm very interested because your problem might happen to the rest of us, and it would be comforting to know that there is a good work-around solution.

Good luck,

[Forrest]

:

Thanks:

I will check this out... Also i am trying to get a hardware USB checker like the USB explorer www.ellisys.com.

Maybe i can rent one somewhere.

Thanks for your help...

I'll keep you informed

Forrest

Greetings , I replaced all the vi's that i was communicating with the NI 4350 with the "NI435x download vi's from National instruments" and i think that has fixed the crashes using the USB bus.

Thanks for you guys listening to my Frustration.

Forrest