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NI-XXX Port Numbers

viningvining Posts: 4,368
in AMX Hardware
Would it be to much to ask to have all NI-XXXX series masters begin port assignment at the same starting numbers.

All Serial Ports start at Port 1
All Relay Ports make Port 8
All IR Ports start at Port 9
All I/O Ports make Port 17

Regardless of whether it's a NI-700, NI-900, NI-2100, NI3100 or NI-4000.

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    Chip MoodyChip Moody Posts: 727
    And the day they come out with an integrated controller that has 10 built-in com ports, your proposal goes right out the window - so I'd say "yes, that's asking too much". :)

    It might be easier to make a handful of .AXS "template" files that have nothing but dummy device assignments in them, (COM1= 5001:1:0, COM2 = 5001:2:0, etc..., IR1 =, IR2 =, etc...) and save them as "NI200 Template.AXS" or somesuch. When you need to start a new program, open the template that matches the controller your're working with, and rename the dummy identifiers to match the hardware you're really using...

    - Chip
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    alexanboalexanbo Posts: 282
    Well maybe they could give each device type it's on device number. Not sure if that would be more or less confusing though.
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    Joe HebertJoe Hebert Posts: 2,159
    vining wrote:
    Would it be to much to ask to have all NI-XXXX series masters begin port assignment at the same starting numbers.

    All Serial Ports start at Port 1
    Wish granted. :)
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    viningvining Posts: 4,368
    Chip Moody wrote:
    And the day they come out with an integrated controller that has 10 built-in com ports, your proposal goes right out the window - so I'd say "yes, that's asking too much".
    Well yeah that would screw up this idea but my thinking is, if they haven't done that yet with the shift to IP comms, it's not to likely they'd do that in the future.

    OK let's make everything so that Serial is 1, IR is 101, I/O is 201 and relays are 301. That should enough room for expansion. I'd like to see the box that would use all those ports. I'd just like to see something that required some logical thinking rather than what we have now.
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    viningvining Posts: 4,368
    Joe Hebert wrote:
    Wish granted.
    You're right, they do all start at one. I don't know what I was thinking.
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    Joe HebertJoe Hebert Posts: 2,159
    NI Port Cheat Sheet
    vining wrote:
    OK let's make everything so that Serial is 1, IR is 101, I/O is 201 and relays are 301. That should enough room for expansion. I'd like to see the box that would use all those ports. I'd just like to see something that required some logical thinking rather than what we have now.
    Playing devil?s advocate, I wouldn?t go so far as to say the port numbering system isn?t logical. Ports are numbered sequentially ? that?s logical. Device types are grouped together and follow a pattern. Serial ports are first, relay ports are second (if there are any), next is IR, I/O, and last is IR RX (if there are any) ? that?s logical.

    I don?t know that skipping ports in groups of 100 is anymore logical than what we have now. We?d still have to remember which 100 every device type is and how many of each type are on each controller. I don?t think it would be a far stretch to think there may be some sort of port number limit similar to the 100 ports for the Moderos. So skipping ports just to skip ports may not be advisable.

    Either way you cut it, bouncing around from NI to NI can get confusing but it is just an address. And even though I think I?ve got them all memorized, I always find myself referring to the attached cheat sheet that I made for myself because I?m just never sure. 
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    viningvining Posts: 4,368
    I know it's not really a big deal but sometimes when I want to run a program that was assigned ports for an NI-2000 on my NI-4000 I shouldn't have to re-address everything (except the serial) to make things work. Obviously on the flip side if I was running a program designed for a NI-4000 and tried to run it on a NI-2000 I would want most things to work instead of sending Relay and IR to my serial ports. If they all had the same beginning addresses their ability to do a quick swap out would be expidited. Then the system could have built in error handling where if an address is not with in its configuration it gets tossed and there's no melt down (lock up).

    You could then send a monkey to do a midnight swap out for a casrep'd NI and the major systems which usually start at the first port assingments would work. That is unless you can afford to stock one of each as a back up.
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