Relinquishing LabVIEW's hold on the serial port

[BrokenArrow]

Hello all,

Once LabVIEW takes control of the serial port (sets it up, starts reading and writing to it) it doesn't want to let go, even if you've closed VISA, etc.

In my experience, when your hardware freezes up (lets say due to a bad command sent to a device), you have to quit LabVIEW and restart. No number of serial port stops, breaks, closes will make it re-open the port with success. You have to close LV. On a similar note, If you've started LabVIEW and had any kind of serial comm going on, you have to quit LabVIEW in order to use Hyperterminal (or anything else). These two scenarios are related in that I don't know why LabVIEW holds the port hostage.

Is there a way, while LV is still up and running, to simulate whatever is happening when LV closes and opens?

Thanks,

Richard

[jdunham]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ Oct 28 2008, 10:30 AM)

Hello all,

Once LabVIEW takes control of the serial port (sets it up, starts reading and writing to it) it doesn't want to let go, even if you've closed VISA, etc.

In my experience, when your hardware freezes up (lets say due to a bad command sent to a device), you have to quit LabVIEW and restart. No number of serial port stops, breaks, closes will make it re-open the port with success. You have to close LV. On a similar note, If you've started LabVIEW and had any kind of serial comm going on, you have to quit LabVIEW in order to use Hyperterminal (or anything else). These two scenarios are related in that I don't know why LabVIEW holds the port hostage.

Is there a way, while LV is still up and running, to simulate whatever is happening when LV closes and opens?

VISA Close works just fine for me, but other VISA calls will auto-open the port. Therefore you have to make sure that after closing, you don't call any other VISA functions on the port, even in other loops. I just tried it again.

Write some characters to COM1, and I can't open my terminal (PuTTY). Run VISA close, and then it opens OK. Can you post some sample code?

[TobyD]

QUOTE (jdunham @ Oct 28 2008, 11:14 AM)

VISA Close works just fine for me...

Me Too.

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (jdunham @ Oct 28 2008, 02:14 PM)

VISA Close works just fine for me, but other VISA calls will auto-open the port. Therefore you have to make sure that after closing, you don't call any other VISA functions on the port, even in other loops. I just tried it again.

Write some characters to COM1, and I can't open my terminal (PuTTY). Run VISA close, and then it opens OK. Can you post some sample code?

Thanks jdunham. I think you are spot on. I don't have the code with me at the moment, but the state machine takes us back to Idle where there's a Bytes at Port that runs once every few seconds, maybe that's what's reopening the port. I bet that's it. I need to wrap that in a False statement if the user has tried to re-link to the port.

Overzealous use of the Abort button is also to blame. I need to hide it. :ninja:

[Justin Goeres]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ Oct 28 2008, 12:25 PM)

Thanks jdunham. I think you are spot on. I don't have the code with me at the moment, but the state machine takes us back to Idle where there's a Bytes at Port that runs once every few seconds, maybe that's what's reopening the port. I bet that's it. I need to wrap that in a False statement if the user has tried to re-link to the port.

It could also be caused by poorly-written drivers for your USB-to-serial converter (or serial-port PCI card) if you've got anything like that in the loop.

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (Justin Goeres @ Oct 28 2008, 05:26 PM)

It could also be caused by poorly-written drivers for your USB-to-serial converter (or serial-port PCI card) if you've got anything like that in the loop.

This last program does use hardware with a "virtual com port". It's giving me fits. I'd like to be able to have a "rescue" button to reset comm with it, but when it locks up, so does my program.

[Wire Warrior]

QUOTE (BrokenArrow @ Oct 28 2008, 07:04 PM)

This last program does use hardware with a "virtual com port". It's giving me fits. I'd like to be able to have a "rescue" button to reset comm with it, but when it locks up, so does my program.

Could it be that you have an long timeout, like never, on a visa component that is waiting for a response from the closed port?

Just a thought,

Jason

[BrokenArrow]

QUOTE (jasonw @ Oct 29 2008, 03:27 PM)

Could it be that you have an long timeout, like never, on a visa component that is waiting for a response from the closed port?

Just a thought,

Jason

Good troubleshooting point, but I do report timeouts (10 seconds) and give an option to quit the program or close VISA + reinit the port.

I found the main issue with this one program: A PWM output was being set with a prescaler that was causing the cycle to be on the order of a few hours! That gave it the illusion that it was locked up.