OK, I think I am in over my head. :) I am considering using a PCI card (Sabtech NTDS interface card for those interested), and it doesn't seem to have a nice simple DLL like I am use to. Instead it has a kernel mode Windows 2000 device driver, and I am expected to use "...normal Windows I/O system calls..." to talk to it. The driver is written to be part of the Serial Port driver class, BUT it can not be treated simply as a serial port since "...there are several restrictions on the I/O calls...", and "...it has its own set of DeviceIoControl functions."
I know so little about Windows device drivers that I don't really even understand the paragraph I just wrote. Does this mean I can't talk to the card directly from LabVIEW? If I can, is it difficult for someone who uses DLL's fairly often? Can I use the Win32 API to talk to it? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach this? There is another card I am considering from a different company that does have a DLL (with a rather obscure command set), which I could use instead of this one. Or maybe I could get one of our .NET programers to write me something simple. Suggestions anyone? Thanks for any nuggets of wisdom! John Howard