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What Is the Easiest Way to Configure and Communicate With Serial Ports After Installing NI-Serial 1.8?

Primary Software: Driver Software>>NI-Serial
Primary Software Version: 1.8
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem:
How can I easily configure and communicate with the serial port of my choice after installing NI-Serial 1.8?

Solution:
You can use the NI-Serial Communicator. The NI-Serial Communicator gives you easy access to communicating with RS-232 and RS-485 serial ports. This applies to both native serial ports on your computer as well as NI-Serial ports. The application groups it's functionality into 4 tabs: General, Flow Control, Advanced, and Test. Together these tabs and their contents allow you to choose a serial port installed on your computer, configure its communication properties (baud rate, parity, flow control, and much more), communicate with the chosen port (write, read, or query), and view sent and received data in various forms. Additional functionality includes dynamically refreshing for newly installed ports (such as with USB or PCMCIA serial devices; just click the "Refresh Port List" button on the General tab) and displaying a "loopback test" example in both C and LabVIEW (just click the "Show Example" button). To get a better idea for the functionality provided by the NI-Serial Communicator, see the screenshots attached below (1 for each of the communicator's 4 tabs).

Here are 3 ways you can launch the NI-Serial Communicator:

METHOD 1: Direct Launch Method

1. On your computer, go to: <National Instruments>\NI-Serial\Communicator
   
2. Double-click Communictor.exe
   
   This launches the NI-Serial Communicator and opens the first available serial port.
   

METHOD 2: Command-Line Launch Method

1. Click Start»Run
   
2. Type "cmd" (without quotes)
   
3. In the DOS prompt that launches type the following on separate lines:
   • C:
     
   • cd Program Files\National Instruments\NI-Serial\Communicator
     
   • "Serial Communicator.exe" 1 (WITH QUOTES, but not this parenthetical note)
   
   This will launch the NI-Serial Communicator and open COM1; by replacing 1 in the last bullet above with an integer x will open COMx (likely ASRLx::INSTR). Note that if you replace the last bullet with simply "Serial Communicator.exe" and exclude the 1, then the communicator will launch as in the Direct Launch Method above.

METHOD 3: MAX Launch Method - NI-Serial ports ONLY

1. Launch MAX by clicking Start»Programs»National Instruments»Measurement & Automation
   
2. Expand the Devices and Interfaces element in the configuration tree.
   
3. Expand an NI-Serial device element in the configuration tree (such as a PCI, PXI, PCMCIA, or USB-Serial device)
   
4. Right-click on a port under the chosen device and choose "Communicate with Instrument"
   
   This will launch the NI-Serial Communicator and open the port on which you right-clicked.
   

Note that you can always change the port which you are communicating with by selecting the desired port from the COM Port drop down list in the General tab. Also note that there is a feature only visible for NI RS-485 ports called the Transceiver Mode. This allows you to select the 485 Transceiver Mode and will become visible as a drop down list on the General tab, just below the COM Port drop down list, if you select an NI RS-485 port from the COM Port drop down list. For more information on NI RS-485 transceiver modes and other topics related to serial communication, see the related links below.

Related Links:
KnowledgeBase 17M6L0TI: What Are the Different Transceiver Modes on the NI RS-485 Serial Cards?
KnowledgeBase 1M9D8H6Q: Serial Communication Starting Point
Product Reference: Serial Quick Reference Guide
Developer Zone Tutorial: Serial Communication Overview
Serial Product Support Homepage

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Report Date: 08/18/2005
Last Updated: 12/27/2007
Document ID: 3OHGB94B

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