Archived:Programming HID Compliant USB RAW Devices in Windows Vista or Windows 7 using NI VISA

Updated Apr 29, 2024

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Reported In

Hardware

  • USB-A

Software

  • LabVIEW Full
  • LabVIEW Professional
  • LabWindows/CVI Full

Driver

  • NI-VISA

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

I have a USB-RAW device that I would like to communicate with it in LabVIEW, LabWindows/CVI, or Visual Studio. How do I use the NI-VISA driver to communicate with this device?

Solution

General instructions for interfacing with USB RAW devices using the NI-VISA driver are given in the article How Can I Communicate With a Device Using NI-VISA USB RAW Mode? 
The VISA Driver Development Wizard is used to create the INF file so that Windows can detect your USB RAW device and use the NI-VISA driver to communicate with it.  

However, HID Compliant devices are a special case. By default, Microsoft Windows installs a Microsoft signed driver for any HID Compliant device on your machine, which can not be overwritten by the VISA Driver Development Wizard generated INF file (on Windows Vista, Windows7). 

The best way to access an HID Compliant device is by making calls directly to the hid.dll library provided in Windows Vista and Windows7. In LabVIEW, this can be done using the Call Library Function Node located on the functions palette under Connectivity » Libraries and Executables » Call Library Function Node.

 

Additional Information

The hid.dll library is not supported directly by National Instruments, see the related links section below for more information on communicating with your HID Compliant USB device via this library.

Related Links

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