Re: PXI-8176 usb serial port multiplexer driver installation

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Buzz,<br><br>Thanks for making your post here in the Discussion Forums.<br><br>Your USB question is an interesting one. While you may be used to using USB hardware with your computer, USB hardware is not generally used in the LabVIEW RT operating environment. As this pair of short KnowledgeBases notes, USB hardware is not supported under LabVIEW RT and having USB enabled in RT tends to introduce jitter to your RT application:<br><br><a href="http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/86763B1F742C1EFE862569BD0060B906?OpenDocument" target=_blank>Does LabVIEW Real-Time Support USB Communication?</a><br><br><a href="http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/3cf9e0de9940b11e862568d200800739" target=_blank>Too Much Jitter When Running a LabVIEW RT Application</a><br><br>Hopefully, this won't be too detrimental to your application. If you are looking for a way to accomplish something without using USB you may want to post some details of what you are trying to accomplish. This forum would hopefully be able to guide you toward an alternative method of accomplishing your goal.<br><br>Regards,<br>Jed R.<br>Applications Engineer<br>National Instruments

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<blockquote><hr>Buzz wrote:<br>Based off of what you shared that the RT does not typically support USB, then why are their two USB ports on my PXI8176 controller? What are they typically used for and how are they supported?<br><hr></blockquote><br><br>Peter,<br><br>PXI controllers are usually designed to be dual-boot computers. Dual-boot means that you have the option to boot the controller into a standard operating system (Windows) or the ability to boot into a real-time operating system (LabVIEW RT). Many PXI controllers have both of these options installed, however there are also a good number of PXI controllers that only have one option or the other installed.<br><br>From reading your post, it seems likely that you have an RT-only PXI controller. Regardless of what is installed, the hardware that you see will remain the same. So when you see the two USB ports on the controller, those are ports that were intended for use under a non-RT operating system (like Windows).<br><br>I hope that helps to clarify.<br><br>Regards,<br>Jed R.<br>Applications Engineer<br>National Instruments