NI MAX Test Panel Cannot Be Run Since No CAN Ports Are Available

Updated May 11, 2023

Reported In

Hardware

  • USB-8473
  • USB-8473S
  • NI-9862

Software

  • Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX)

Driver

  • NI-CAN

Issue Details

I am attempting to use the test panels in MAX on my CAN device. When I click on the test panel button, I get an error that says "Test panel cannot be run because no CAN port available. Be sure to have at least one NI CAN card inserted into your computer".

 

 
However, my CAN port shows up in MAX so why am I getting this error?

Solution

This error could occur if your device does not support test panles.
  • Using the test panels in MAX is an unsupported feature when it involves a USB-CAN device. This feature is unsupported because test panels utilize the Channel API and USB-CAN does not support Channel API. 
  • Test panels are only supported in NI-CAN. If your device is only supported by NI-XNET you will not be able to use the test panels.
In these cases you can use instead the Bus Monitor to monitor CAN data outside of LabVIEW. 

Additional Information

USB-CAN does not support Channel API because this API uses CAN objects. In particular, periodic CAN objects exceed a hardware limitation of USB-CAN devices. Programmatically, USB-CAN hardware can use the Channel API in LabVIEW, with the Frame Channel Conversion Library, as covered in How Can I Use the NI-CAN Channel API with USB-CAN Hardware?

 

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