installing 8.5 w/device drivers & LV 7.1

[Dan Bookwalter]

Has anyone installed 8.5 and the device drivers on a system that also had 7.1 w/drivers ? if so did it remove the device drivers from 7.1 , if so whats the fix ?

Thanks

Dan

[Yair]

From the past I can tell you that NI usually supports 2 versions back with its hardware drivers (that would be 8.2 and 8.0). Since you can only have one version of a hardware driver at any given point, installing the new one removes support for the old LV version.

I saw this with FieldPoint and DAQmx.

The solution would probably be to have a dedicated machine for the old LV version or to use virtual machines. Another option is to remain with the old version of the hardware driver, which I believe should work with 8.5.

[David Boyd]

QUOTE(yen @ Aug 31 2007, 08:17 AM)

From the past I can tell you that NI usually supports 2 versions back with its hardware drivers (that would be 8.2 and 8.0). Since you can only have one version of a hardware driver at any given point, installing the new one removes support for the old LV version.

I saw this with FieldPoint and DAQmx.

I hadn't heard about the 'two versions' limitation for driver support - is this quoted anywhere? Somehow I have come to believe that NI's driver support generally strives to support farther back, but perhaps I'm limiting my thoughts to VISA. I also have a few apps still in use running under the 7.1 RTE and I'd hate to think that updating DAQmx would break them. With VISA, my impression was that support is dropped for older Windows OSes, not for LV versions.

The VISA 4.2 readme sez:QUOTE

NI-VISA 4.2 does not support Windows 9

x

/NT. To run your VISA application on Windows 95, you must install NI-VISA 2.6.1 or lower. To run your VISA application on Windows 98/Me, you must install NI-VISA 3.0.1 or lower. To run your VISA application on Windows NT, you must install NI-VISA 3.3.1 or lower.

The readme on DAQmx 8.6 (latest release) sez:QUOTE

NI-DAQmx is the latest NI-DAQ driver with new VIs and functions and development tools for programming measurement devices. You should install and use NI-DAQmx if you are using devices supported by NI-DAQmx; refer to

http://file:///C:/Program%20Files/National%20Instruments/NI-DAQ/readme.html#devSupport'

target="_blank">

Device Support

. If you are using a TEDS sensor, you can use only NI-DAQmx. If you are using NI application software with NI-DAQmx, you must use LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Measurement Studio version 7.1 and later, LabVIEW SignalExpress 2.

x

, or the LabVIEW Real-Time Module 7.1 or later.

Elsewhere it looks like the oldest Windows OS supported by DAQmx 8.6 is Win2000.

I know less about support for FieldPoint, even though I've got some FP-RT hardware running. With FP RealTime, I think of the LabVIEW version upgrade as more of a risk to compatibility - since you have to update the RT module in your development environment and also the LabVIEW engine in the hardware.

And don't make me guess about GPIB support - I've got one GPIB-connected instrument in the whole facility. OK, I'll guess - that architecture is very mature and probably doesn't change much (if at all) with new driver releases.

Hope this is useful - good luck, Dan.

Dave

[Yair]

No, I can't justify that "two versions" number, especially when drivers don't always come out sync'ed to a new LV version, but that's the number I seem to remember.

Examples - LV 8.0 included Fieldpoint 5 which removed support for LV 6.1. DAQmx 8.3 (I think) and above (as you mentioned) can only be used with LV 7.1 and above.

I don't know about VISA.

[Grampa_of_Oliva_n_Eden]

QUOTE(David Boyd @ Aug 31 2007, 09:10 AM)

I hadn't heard about the 'two versions' limitation for driver support - is this quoted anywhere? ...Dave

It would take some time to chase down the link on the NI forums, but yes it is sadly true.

The core LV version play well together. I thnks is was Urs or Albert that said they has LV 1-8 running on a Mac.

I can speak from personal experience that when the new drivers are installed, it goes through "obsolete" versions and removes support.

Tollkits are even worse!

You can only istall for one version. If it alredy installed for an eralier version, you have to remove it before you can install it for the new. When you install it for the new, it does not add support for the old.

There are ways to hack around that short-coming if you really want the toolkits installed for more than one version.

Ben