dll LabVIEW system error

[_Bryan]

I have a computer that has an internal CAN card that only has a dll for me to use that I need to write a LabVIEW executable for.  http://www.ieiworld.com/product_groups/industrial/content.aspx?gid=09049552811981014603&cid=0D182496...  I would really like to use NI hardware, but the boss does not want to spend a fortune and wants to stay away from external CAN options because of the tight space requirements.

I copied the files in the attached IEICAN02 Lib.zip file to my development machine thinking that I could write code using the .dll even if the actual hardware is not in my development machine.

So when I go to configure the call library function node I can select the dll and configure it.  But as soon as I click ok I get the attached error message "The program can't start because WDAPI1011.dll is missing".  The other CAN devices I tried for this project have had LabVIEW API's written for them, so I have not had to directly deal with dll's before.

I am trying to figure out why LabVIEW or the IEICAN02.dll is looking for the WDAPI1011.dll file.  I am waiting to hear back from the manufacturer, but figured I would ask here as well.  I searched the hard drive on the computer that has the actual hardware and the file does not exist on that machine.  The best thing a google search showed is that the missing dll has something to do with Jungo.  And Jungo has something to do with the CAN drivers installed on the machine that has the hardware installed.

Any ideas from those who know what they are doing?

[rolfk]

Jungo used to be a device driver development kit for Windows. Developing device drivers from scratch is a pretty difficult and involved work. So the developer of the driver for your CAN board apparently did take a shortcut and bought the Jungo driver toolkit and reused their driver so that he could limit himself to the user space DLL (which is a lot easier to debug and program than when you get to try to debug in the Windows kernel space).

The DLL definitely does link to WDAPI1011.DLL and therefore needs this DLL on your computer. It should be somewhere on the other for sure, but just copying that is probably not enough. This DLL will depend likely on other DLLs that you will then have to find too. Instead you should simply install the entire driver on your computer too. The installer should take care about making sure all dependencies are on the computer.

[_Bryan]

Thanks for the help.

I tried searching the computer with the hardware again for the missing dll and could not find it.  The closest I could find is a file named WDAPI1030.dll.

I have been able to install the Jungo win driver on my Dev machine, and still no WDAPI1011.dll.  So it looks like the rabbit hole is just going deeper and deeper.  I guess it is just a waiting game with the manufacturer at this point.

Thanks for the help.

[_Bryan]

Slight success.  Installing the Jungo drivers put a newer version of the IEICAN02.dll in a program folder that works with the WDAPI1030.dll.  The problem is that it does not come with any documentation for the new versions.

I have been able to use the old documentation and get a few functions to work.  But there are a few like the read function that is listed as a function in the docs, but does not actually have and documentation about it.  And the example only covers how to write a message.

Oh well, figured I would update the post and rant a little.

[rolfk]

So lets see, how many of these setups does your boss want you to make? 10, 100, 1 million?

Because for the cost you have caused by trying to get this working (with no success so far) your boss could probably have bought several NI CAN interface boards already! Trying to be cheap can often be more expensive.

Or do you not get any salary for this work?

[_Bryan]

So far we are only making 4 of these.  The previous 2 used PLC's and had OPC servers that worked well.  For the 4 new units they went to a different controller and want everything to work with CAN.

Trust me, I tried to get NI hardware.  But I also get paid by the hour

[rolfk]

I also looked at the PDF file you included. That looks pretty Windows 95 ish, if you ask me, refers to dialogs and driver filenames that seem like at least 15 years old and describe an installation on a system that you most likely can't find anywhere but in a museum. If the technical support is as up to date as this document, I would not bet a single penny on the use of such hardware in even a hobby project. Just saying 

[_Bryan]

Thanks for the encouraging words....  Ha ha

On the bright side I was able to write a single CAN message yesterday.  But I still have no idea on how to read a message yet.