Use USB Ports of an RasPi with LabVIEW

[Dirac5]

Hello there!

I‘m desperately trying to get LV running on my Raspberry Pi 4B.

I first tried to download the standard LabView programm to the Raspberry with translation layers. (So that the programm thinks it runs on a windows/ x64 machine) - that didn‘t worked as expected.

You‘ll may ask yourself, why didn‘t I used Linx or the hobbyist toolkit - And I can just say that I liked the idea of running the standard LabView programm 😉

But I want to proceed with my project for which I need some sort of possibility to run a LabView code on a RasPi. So far so good.

Furthermore I‘d like to use the Raspberrys USB ports for communication with a motor and it should run headlessly without the Raspberry being connected to a PC (that would work but would also kind of defeat the usage of the Pi…)

After all this buildup my question: Is it possible to succed my expectations with the Linx toolkit or with the hobbyist toolkit ???

Thank you very much in advance for any respond !

Dirac5

[GRCK5000]

I don't understand. Are you having an issue? or Are you asking question?

Your question "Is it possible to succed my expectations with the Linx toolkit or with the hobbyist toolkit ??"

My answer would be: Give it a try and see what happens. I personally learn by doing. Learn by doing is one of the best, most effective ways to learn. 

Also, it would be nice to let us know what you have accomplished and where you are now. 

[Dirac5]

Thanks for the respond!

Im just asking questions, trying to avoid wasting time with testing.

Yes, I‘d prefer to just try it out, but I‘m in kind of a hurry because the project (for university) needs to create results - otherwise I won‘t be able to do further developement .

If anyone could just say: Yes, its possible to run a pi without an ongoing connection to a windows PC and to use the pis USB ports in LabVIEW, just like I‘m used to do with a normal PC.

Or negotiate this - I‘d help me a lot!

Nevertheless I will report if or what worked, if I‘m faster than any response!

[GRCK5000]

I see. No problem, but while you are waiting for an answers, you can always try it to save yourself time. You are in good position to try it out, you have LabVIEW and you have hardware. Many people in here may not have the hardware that you have. 

[billko]

Long story short, if you're depending on this to be a robust solution for a university project, experimenting on unofficial combinations of hardware and software isn't the way to go.  Just use LINX with LabVIEW (Hobbyist Toolkit is only for Community Edition - although they really are the same thing).  Develop on the PC, deploy to the target (RPI).

[rolfk]

Please don’t recommend to install the Linx Toolkit in LabVIEW 2020 and later. That will certainly cause problems. If you use LabVIEW Professional or Full 2020 or later you should install the Hobbyist Toolkit.

And yes it allows to run a LabViEW program. But accessing USB in this way is not trivial. If it is in reality a virtual serial port things should be quite easy, but if you expect to do this over a different USB protocol, you may want to reconsider if your are constrained in time. 

Headless LabVIEW development (your LabVIEW executable foesn’t really have an front pannels once you deploy it to the Raspberry Pi to run there on its own) is a considerably different development experience than what you are used on your PC. So if your time is really that limited, you may want to reconsider and maybe rather use an Intel NUC or similar device, which gives you a much more familiar debugging experience.

[billko]

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@rolfk wrote:

Please don’t recommend to install the Linx Toolkit in LabVIEW 2020 and later. That will certainly cause problems. If you use LabVIEW Professional or Full 2020 or later you should install the Hobbyist Toolkit.

And yes it allows to run a LabViEW program. But accessing USB in this way is not trivial. If it is in reality a virtual serial port things should be quite easy, but if you expect to do this over a different USB protocol, you may want to reconsider if your are constrained in time. 

Headless LabVIEW development (your LabVIEW executable foesn’t really have an front pannels once you deploy it to the Raspberry Pi to run there on its own) is a considerably different development experience than what you are used on your PC. So if your time is really that limited, you may want to reconsider and maybe rather use an Intel NUC or similar device, which gives you a much more familiar debugging experience.

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Thank you for that knowledge update.  I didn't know that Hobbyist Toolkit existed as a standalone product.  

[rolfk]

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@billko wrote:

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Thank you for that knowledge update.  I didn't know that Hobbyist Toolkit existed as a standalone product.  

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https://www.ni.com/nl-nl/support/downloads/tools-network/download.labview-hobbyist-toolkit.html#4778...

Seems however to be for LabVIEW 2021 and greater. May have remembered the cutoff point wrongly.

[billko]

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@rolfk wrote:

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@billko wrote:

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Thank you for that knowledge update.  I didn't know that Hobbyist Toolkit existed as a standalone product.  

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https://www.ni.com/nl-nl/support/downloads/tools-network/download.labview-hobbyist-toolkit.html#4778...

Seems however to be for LabVIEW 2021 and greater. May have remembered the cutoff point wrongly.

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Minor detail compared to the major update to my knowledge update.

[Yndigegn]

Hi

NI has written a detailed page about this confusing subject :

Using Raspberry Pi or Arduino with LabVIEW

Updated Apr 12, 2023

Issue Details

• I want to build a control system using a Raspberry Pi and LabVIEW. Can I control the Raspberry Pi platform from LabVIEW?
• I have written a VI with LabVIEW and I want to run it on my Arduino. Can I deploy a LabVIEW VI to an Arduino?

Solution

There are two primary solutions for integrating LabVIEW with Raspberry Pi or Arduino platforms - the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit, and the LINX by Digilent Toolkit. 

Both solutions are designed to be generic hardware abstraction layers for embedded devices, rather than designed for just one specific microcontroller platform.

They allow for communication with hobbyist hardware like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, chipKIT, and others.

LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit (recommended option for LabVIEW 2021 and later)

Most applications looking to run a LabVIEW program on Raspberry Pi or other embedded platforms like Arduino and BeagleBone should look into using the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit. This toolkit allows you to develop LabVIEW code to deploy and run on Raspberry Pi boards up to the Raspberry Pi 4.

This toolkit is only compatible with LabVIEW 2021 and newer. Support can be found for the toolkit on the Hobbyist Toolkit NI Community Group. 

The LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit can be downloaded through the Package Manager or the NI Tools Network. Specifically for LabVIEW 2020, the toolkit is named the LabVIEW LINX by NI Toolkit and can be downloaded from this page or through the VI Package Manager (VIPM).

Note 1: Do not install the package if you are running LabVIEW 2020 Community Edition or later, as the Community Edition already includes the LabVIEW Hobbyist/LINX by NI Toolkit.

Note 2: In order to make the most of the toolkit's features and have some additional menus natively integrated within the LabVIEW environment, the versions of the toolkit and LabVIEW must match. For example, install the 2023 Q1 version of the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit if using LabVIEW 2023 Q1. The Getting Started with the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit article outlines some of the LabVIEW Hobbyist Toolkit's integrated features.

LINX by Digilent Toolkit (deprecated)

For applications running on versions older than LabVIEW 2020 (LabVIEW 2011 minimum), the third-party LINX by Digilent Toolkit for LabVIEW is the former option for designing programs for Raspberry Pi and other embedded platform devices. This solution is designed to work primarily with a host computer running a program and communicating with an embedded platform board, and only supports deploying code to run headlessly on a Raspberry Pi up to the Raspberry Pi 3.

The LINX by Digilent Toolkit can be downloaded through the VI Package Manager (VIPM) or from the VIPM page. VIPM is not a NI software, and any bugs or issues with VIPM are best supported by the VIPM developers.

Additional Information

None of these options is supported with LabVIEW NXG.

Regards