Linking two computers

[DDAdevil]

Hi,

I have a program I need to run on one computer that uses the DAQ Ni software to read data and is wired into a laboratory. I want to be able to view the same front panel display screen and access this from different computers that are networked. I believe it is more complicated than merely having an .exe file on labview capable computers that are networked as only one program can be reading the data from the inputs at a time. Any help on this process would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Gary Rubin]

QUOTE(DDAdevil @ Jun 20 2007, 11:48 AM)

Hi,

I have a program I need to run on one computer that uses the DAQ Ni software to read data and is wired into a laboratory. I want to be able to view the same front panel display screen and access this from different computers that are networked. I believe it is more complicated than merely having an .exe file on labview capable computers that are networked as only one program can be reading the data from the inputs at a time. Any help on this process would be appreciated.

Thanks

I might not be understanding exactly what you're looking to do, but if you just want to monitor remotely, is Windows Remote Desktop or a similar 3rd party application a possibility?

[Jeff Plotzke]

QUOTE(DDAdevil @ Jun 20 2007, 11:48 AM)

Hi,

I have a program I need to run on one computer that uses the DAQ Ni software to read data and is wired into a laboratory. I want to be able to view the same front panel display screen and access this from different computers that are networked. I believe it is more complicated than merely having an .exe file on labview capable computers that are networked as only one program can be reading the data from the inputs at a time. Any help on this process would be appreciated.

Thanks

What about LabVIEW Remote Front Panels?

[ned]

QUOTE(DDAdevil @ Jun 20 2007, 11:48 AM)

I have a program I need to run on one computer that uses the DAQ Ni software to read data and is wired into a laboratory. I want to be able to view the same front panel display screen and access this from different computers that are networked. I believe it is more complicated than merely having an .exe file on labview capable computers that are networked as only one program can be reading the data from the inputs at a time. Any help on this process would be appreciated.

It's not quite clear what you want to do here: will each of the networked computers display exactly the same data, or do the networked computers each need access to the data so they can act on it differently? For the first case, any of the remote viewing options mentioned (Remote Desktop, Remote Front Panels, VNC, etc) will work. If you don't like any of those options, or your needs fall under the second case, I'd suggest that you split your code into two parts: 1) a server that reads your DAQ data, accepts connections, and responds with the acquired data, and 2) a viewer application that retrieves data from the server. You can use shared variables, DataSocket, or a custom TCP or UDP protocol to distribute the data to all instances of the viewer application.

[BobHamburger]

There are some great examples that ship with LabVIEW of how to program a data client/server architecture. Look in the Example Finder under Networking >> TCP & UDP; open up and play with the Multiple Connections VI's. While shared variables and DataSocket both perform this functionality without programming, doing this through your own programming is dramatically more efficient and higher performance.

[jbrohan]

QUOTE(Gary Rubin @ Jun 20 2007, 12:12 PM)

I might not be understanding exactly what you're looking to do, but if you just want to monitor remotely, is Windows Remote Desktop or a similar 3rd party application a possibility?

I'm using TightVNC for something similar. I'm developing a DAQ based application in my office and the client checks it out every day by running it remotely. It's kind of weird seeing the cursor move around and open up menus and change values. It works well since this application is rather slow paced.

The following extract from my documentation (edited!) explains about using the system in a normal dynamic network. These items were not clear to me when I started, and there may be others who do not know and need to.

Yours Sincerely

John

The Avalanche computer is a member of my home network and has the address of 192.168.1.93. This is a private address and cannot be accessed from outside. The real IP address of my home network varies from time to time outside my control.

We need to ensure that some unchanging name (xxxxxxxx.gotdns.com) always points to the real IP address of this network. This is done by a service (free) of dyndns.com. Username xxxxxxxx password xxxxxxxx in every case for this service.

There is an updater (dyndns.exe) running as a service on the Avalanche computer. It updates the web site at dyndns.com in such a way that the address xxxxxxxx.gotdns.com always points to the Avalanche computer in Montreal or in xxxxxxxx.

xxxxxxxx.gotdns.com points to the IP address of the whole home network. It must be got to point to one particular computer. This is done by modifying the router to assign the port 5900 to 192.168.1.93 in this case, or whatever you assign it to in your network. This operation will need to be repeated in xxxxxxxx and again when the machine goes to xxxxxxxx.