NI-Serial 1.8 Driver Software - New Features and Enhancements
PrintOverview
This document describes the newly released software driver for NI Serial interfaces: NI-Serial 1.8.
Table of Contents
3 Mbytes/s Baud Rates for 843x Interfaces (RS-485/RS-422)
The new NI-Serial 1.8 software driver for National Instruments serial interfaces allows all RS-485/RS-422 PCI and PXI interfaces in the 843x family to achieve high-speed baud rates of 3 Mbytes/s. For two-wire auto-mode, the maximum baud rate is 2 Mbytes/s. With previous versions of NI-Serial, the maximum baud rate for these interfaces was 2 Mbytes/s. For RS-232, the PCI and PXI interfaces in the 843x family have a maximum baud rate of 1 Mbyte/s, which is the maximum speed defined for the RS-232 protocol.
Support for 64-Bit Operating Systems
With the release of NI-Serial 1.8, all National Instruments PCI, PXI, and PCMCIA serial interfaces are now supported on both Windows XP x64 and Server 2003 x64.
NI-Serial Driver Table
The following table lists the latest version of NI-Serial driver software to install based on your operating system and
specific serial interface.
Click on a link below to download the specified driver version.
| Interface Type |
2000/XP/
Server 2003 |
XP x64/
Server 2003 x64 |
NT
|
Me/9x
|
| PCI-843x |
x
|
x
|
||
| PCI-232/485 | ||||
| PXI-843x |
x
|
x
|
||
| PXI-842x | ||||
| USB |
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
| Ethernet |
x
|
x
|
||
| PCMCIA | ||||
| ISA |
x
|
New Communication Utility
The Serial Communicator is a utility that allows you to establish basic communication with your instrument or another serial port. Using the Serial Communicator, you can easily read, write, and query data, specify advanced settings such as timeout values and end of string (EOS) characters, set the receive and transmit buffer sizes, and edit flow control settings, such as RTS/CTS or Xon/Xoff.
Follow these steps to launch the Serial Communicator:
- Select Start»Programs»National Instruments»Measurement & Automation to start MAX.
- Expand the Devices and Interfaces directory by clicking the + next to the folder.
- Select your serial interface and expand it to see its ports by clicking the + next to its name.
- Right-click on the desired serial port and select Communicate with Instrument. This launches the Serial Communicator.
You can use the General, Flow Control, and Advanced tabs to change the port settings. Use the Test tab to write and read strings through the COM port. The Serial Communicator window is shown below.
Microsoft Certified Driver
The NI-Serial 1.8 driver software is a Microsoft certified driver for Windows XP and XP x64 (for the supported hardware). This allows new NI serial hardware to install on your machine and assign serial ports with almost no interaction. Simply plug in or connect any National Instruments PCI, PXI, USB, ISA, or PCMCIA serial interface to your computer, boot the computer, and watch Windows find each serial port and install the necessary driver files. There are no warning messages or endless pop-up windows. This greatly simplifies the installation process and allows you to get your system up and running rapidly.
Related Links:
National Instruments Serial Interfaces Homepage
Download the NI-Serial 1.8 Software Driver
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