Unused shared variables and vi's

I'm cleaning up a 9-month old project. I'm the 3rd developer to work on it and it's become a little disorganized. I want to clean up the file structure and project directory before the next developer steps in to support this project. What is the best way to organize an already existing project and file structure to eliminate any unused vi's and shared variables?
PaulG.
"I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane." -- George Orwell
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I've gotten the VI's pretty well organized using the save for distribution function. I have some templates and seperate main functions and just wanted to know if I missed anything. I'm really concerned about unused shared variables. They seem to be taking up an awful amount of space in my project and directories.
PaulG.
"I enjoy talking to you. Your mind appeals to me. It resembles my own mind except that you happen to be insane." -- George Orwell

Similar Messages

Problem with dsc shared shared variables and error 1950679023

I'm having trouble using shared variables on my laptop PC (with Windows XP) using Labview 8.2 and DSC. I've set up a simple project with one VI and one shared variable library. In the VI, I have a while loop that writes a number from a front panel control to the shared variable. Another loop running in parallel reads the shared variable and displays to an indicator on the front panel. The VI resides on my PC (no remote targets). This program executes just fine on my desk top PC; however I get the following error codes out of the shared variable nodes when I run the project and VI on my laptop for the write and read, respectively: ni_tagger_lv_Write 180121604 ni_tagger_lv_Read -1950679023 I've tried to manually deploy the shared variable library without success. The NI knowledge base and other entries on this forum suggested that the Windows firewall should be disabled for a quick fix, however, the firewall was already disabled on my lap top. I didn't see any entries regarding the 180121604 error code.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The problem has mysteriously gone away. For about the 10th time, I manually deployed the share variable library, and it started to work properly.

Using Shared Variables and Initialize Front Panel Binding (to PSP)

Hi,
I use LV DSC RT 8.2.1
I have a Vacuum System That includes signals from - Pumps failure, Valves status, Vacuum gauge, start Pump ...
Each signal is read by a FieldPoint.
All the relevant FieldPoint Channels are read by the Server (a computer in the Ethernet Network) and published to the network in the form of Shared Variables.
I have a client VI that is reading the Shared Variables published by the Server using Front Panel Binding.
Problem :
Some of the Bindings are in the mode 'Write &Read' and that causes some initialization problems.
For example - Valve #1 is Open, and then a User start running the Client VI, (the Valve #1 Status mode is 'Write & Read")
if in the VI the status of Valve #1 is closed (before running it) then the Valve status is changing to Closed.
I want the Client VI to first read the Physical status of the instrument and then to change the Value if the User changes it.
But that's seems to be a problem when using Front Panel Binding... (is it?)
I know I can Deploy a lvlib in the Client Side and Item Bind to the Shared Variables or Use DataSocket.
(Is DataSocket is a Reliable method when connecting to Shared Variables? What are the disadvantages when using DataSocket?)
What is recommended by those of you that are experienced or by NI ?
Sincerely Yours,
Amitai Abramson.

Amitai Abramson,
Hello and thanks for using the NI Forums.
I'm glad that you've read the Using the LabVIEW Shared Variable Tutorial on our website. Check out these other resources:
Network Variable Technical Overview
Troubleshooting Network-Published Shared Variables
Why Do I See Unexpected Value Change Events for Shared Variables Using LabVIEW DSC?
All You Need to Know About Shared Variables
Creating a Value Change Event for Shared Variables
Alternative Method for Using Shared Variables Between Systems in LabVIEW 8.x
What Is The Difference Between Using Shared Variables And DataSocket VIs To Access OPC Tags?
The issue that you are seeing by having "Write & Read" bound items on both the server and client side is essentially a race condition, you don't know which one is being read/written at what time. To resolve this issue I would take a look at some of the documents below.
Using a Local, Global, or Shared Variable in Parallel Loops Can Cause Race Conditions
Using Local and Global Variables Carefully
Tutorial: Local Variable, Global Variable, and Race Conditions
Locking a Shared Resource or Variable in LabVIEW Using Semaphores
You mentioned not wanting to have two sets of shared variables (one on each side), but this is a great method to resovle this issue, that, or you can develope some sort of hand shaking to prevent these race conditions.
I would suggest that in the future when using these forums you try to ask only one question per thread and make it more concise. It's hard to tackle multiple questions and such broad questions as "I want to know all the ways that I can connect to Shared Variables, and I want to know the advantages and disadvantages." I suggest this because we want you to get your questions answered and more concise questions will result in quicker and better answers.
Message Edited by Ben S on 10-01-2009 06:05 PM
Ben Sisney
FlexRIO V&V Engineer
National Instruments

Question about shared variables and report generator

I have a project with about 200-250 shared variables and at every 12 hours i want to make a report containing information about some boolean and double front panel variables linked to the shared variables... Now, i've tried with both the "Write Trace to SpreadSheet File" function from DSC->History and with different functions from NI Report Generation Toolkit. My problem is this: i would like to get my xls file to contain just the timestamps when my shared variable changed value. As it is, the number of rows in the file depends, obviously, on the sampling interval given as input. As an example, in 12 hours, my shared variable would change value maybe 5-6 times. Thus i would like my xls file to contain just 5-6 rows with those 5-6 changes. If i set the sampling interval to say, a matter of seconds, that would mean too much unneeded information in my xls file. Instead, if i set it to let's say 15 minutes, i would probably lose the moment the shared variable changed value. Is there a way for me to achieve my desired functionality with functions from DSC or Report Generation Toolkit? Thanks in advance, Sabin

Hi Mike and thanks for the reply. Actually, my first idea was exactly this: in an event case structure, whenever my variable changed value, i would retain the relevant data in an array and then at the 12 hour period write all of it in a report. However, my boss deeemed it memory unefficient and compelled me to use only one function. Thus my predicament... If you have more advice on this new info, i would be grateful... Cheers, sabin

RT Network Shared Variable and Visa Serial Instr class

Hi,
I'm using Labview 2009 SP1 with the RT module. I've had no problems creating a RT Target application and a Host PC application which are interconnected using Network Shared Variables, until I came to the COM ports fitted to the RT Target (PXI Embedded Controller and 2 x 4 port COM cards).
I can configure and use the COM ports in the RT Target application providing I use constants to define which COM port to use, i.e. VISA OPEN function accepts hardcoded "COM2" , (VISA Serial Instr class).
But I want to pass the COM Port resource name from my host application.
Is there a suitable Network Shared Variable I can create ? or how do I change the string value (COM Port name) of the VISA Serial Instr class variable in the RT Target application ?
thanks,
Gary.

Hi there Gary,
Thanks fot the post. I think I have found something that may be if use to yourself.
http://labviewwiki.org/Functional_global_variable
This is the functional global variable.
Take a look at it and let me know what you think!
Many thanks,
Liam A.
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

Shared Variable and classes

Hi friends,
1.can you tell me the Disadvantages of Shared Variables?
2.What is classes ,how to make it?
Raj

Hi! Raj
Shared Variables
shared variables share data between loops on a single diagram or between VIs across the network. For doing that they break the LabVIEW dataflow paradigm.
Disadvantages:
1. Using variables allows for race conditions and incurs more overhead than passing the data by wire(break the LabVIEW dataflow paradigm).
Race conditions happen when you, for example, write data to a shared resource from multiple operations faster than you read data from the same shared resource.
2.You must have a project open to create a shared variable
You can also read more about shared variables at http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4679
Attachments:
Race condition.PNG ‏57 KB

Why should you explicitly open and close shared variable connections?

I'm looking into switching over from the old Datasocket API to the new Shared Variable API for programmatic access to shared variables, and I noticed that LV doesn't seem to have any problems executing Shared Variable Reads & Writes without first opening the connection explicitly. That is, I can just drop in a shared varaible Read VI, wire a constant to the refnum input, and it will work. I'm wondering, then, what benefits are offered by explicitly opening the conenction ahead of time...?
I guess I could see some cases where you want to open all necessary connections in an initialization state of a top-level state machine, particularly if you want to use the "Open & Verify Connection"---so you could jump straight to an error case if any connections fail. But other than that, why else might one want to explicitly open the connections.
And, along those lines, are there any problems with implicitly opening the connections? One reason why I am hesitant to open them explicitly is because for one of our applications, we need to be able to dynamically switch from one variable to another at runtime. It would be nice to just switch the variable refnum (wired to the input of the Read function), without having to manually close out the old connection and open a new one. A quick prototype of this seems to work. But am I shooting myself in the foot by doing so?
Thanks in advance.

I'd expect there's a very small number of people at NI that would know the answer to the detail you're asking for. But, let's try to extrapolate from this rather old post to see if we can understand what they're forming their impression on.
The shared variable has to have some sort of reference going on in the background. It looks like they're calling this a connection. It's how LabVIEW knows where to find this variable on the network. We can also see this reference certainly exists if we're opening/closing the reference in the explicit method. You see the connection as just a string referencing the variable by URL. This "reference" has to be stored somewhere. No matter how we're looking at this, we're aware there's a reference of some sort stored.
Now, we'd want to look at what would cause this reference to go away. If you open/close explicitly, it's easy to see it goes away at the close. If it's implicit, when would it make sense to close it out? The VI can't be expected to guess where it's done being referenced and close it out. This puts us into a situation where the soonest it could close is when the VI ends. From my experience, references tend to be wiped when you close out LabVIEW. It's this kind of idea that makes the FGV possible. I wouldn't be surprised by Morgan's claim here.
If we look at scalability, you're talking about two different topics. You're talking about adding an extra open, close, read, etc rather than just a few wires. That certainly would look a mess. In terms of the dynamic swap that was being discussed, we wouldn't be adding all of those. The concern would be if enough connections were opened it'd start to behave similar to a memory leak. This could be something that works with a smaller number of variables. If you continue to scale, it becomes problematic. This is why they suggest it's not scalable.
To your questions:
Does LV allocate some kind of session in memory using that string as a lookup?
It would HAVE to allocate some memory to hold that string. Otherwise, it'd be pointless to even have the reference.
Does it reuse that session if other parts of the application reference the same variable, or does it create a unique session for each referencing call to "Read Variable.vi"?
I would expect this to be "it depends." With the implicit method, I would expect it to open a new reference in each point it isn't wired. This is similar to int x,y = 5; x and y share the same value but are their own unique memory location. If you wire the reference to the other points, it should use the same reference. This would make more sense to me than the program seeking out any other potential usage of the variable in the application to see if there's already a reference open. I could be wrong, though.
And what resources does this "connection" actually represent?
At best, this is just the string. At worst, it's the string and the TCP socket. I'd lean towards the first. Opening and closing sockets should be relatively easy in most applications. But, it also wouldn't surprise me if it holds the socket.
I'm sure others have a better understanding than I do. But, that's what I'd expect for anything you've asked.

How to add a new Shared Variable programmatically to an existing and deployed library?

Hi there!
I am trying to accomplish this on both LabVIEW 8.6 and LabVIEW 2010 and seems like it's not any different in this situation.
My case: A project has a library with 4 Shared Variables (SVs). The library and the variables are deployed (visible in Distributed System Manager 8.6/2010). I want to add 2 more variables into this library. It is possible to do this manually from Project Explorer window's options menu. But while running an application it has to be done programmatically. Can I provide the library reference to the one currently existing without creating a new one?
"Create Or Add Library To Project" function in the Datalogging and Supervisory Control (DSC) toolkit does not help in this case. That function, as the name suggests, just tries to create a new library in the project.
Two possible methods:
The function "Add Shared Variable To Library" (DSC>EngineControl>Libraries & Processes) needs a library reference, which could be provided via "CreateOrAddLibraryToProject" function, but this function tries to create a new library, and if I provide the path of the existing library it throws an exception that the library already exists in the project (yes, as I wrote above, I need to add new variables to an existing and deployed library).
OR
The function "Create Shared Variable" (DSC>EngineControl>Variables & I/O Servers) will add Shared Variable in a process, and not physically in a library file, and the problem (limitation) with this approach is that it doesn't allow to add complex data type Shared Variables (for example in LabVIEW 8.6 it has only 4 datatype options in input parameter, and even in LV2010 it does not have "Image" datatype that I need).
The scond method is my preferred method as it allows to work on Online Shared Variables and doesn't create them physically in libraries (and this is good as the variables' scope remains only till the Variable Engine is running). But it doesn't support advanced data types, and the first method is powerful in terms that it supports to virtually any datatype, it just seems tricky to get that reference to the library.
Any tips?
Thanks ahead!
Vaibhav

<<<<>>>>
As the above two images show, while a library does not exist, it is easy to use the "CreateOrAddLibraryToProject.vi" which will add a new library to the project (if it doesn't exist on file system, a new library will be created) and that way, using the reference (the green wire going out from the function and the Case Structure, can be used to add Shared Variables to the library. The problem was what to do when a library already exists in the project, how to add more variables to it. I was looking for a way to get a library reference, and somehow I could not see it inside a Project's property (VI Server functions). Hence I posted the question. And upon continuing my search, I found it on the Application's property list.
I hope it was useful for someone else as well. And thanks for the replies. Please share a better idea if you have.
Vaibhav

CRIO and ni 9234 modules not working or communicating through fpga with accelerometers, fpga connected to real time application which is also connected to shared variables linked to modbus slave

Hi,
I have a compact rio which has a 4 way chassis attached to that chassis is three ni9234 modules they are linked using fpga to a real time application then using shared variables in the low speed loop that are linked to a modbus slave to communicate with dcs, the ni 9234's have accelerometers connected to them with iepe ac coupled option on the c modules, my problem is the real time application seems to be running okay even when power loss occurs it restarts with no problem and the fpga writes to the portable hard drive bin files fine but without a accelerometer connected I get low noise readings as soon as I connect a accelerometer to any one of the 10 outputs it just goes to a fixed number (0.03125) as soon as disconnect it again it reverts back to reading noise, I have run a scan on the modules and only get a spike when I connect or disconnect the accelerometer, I have tested the voltage at the pins of the module and I get 22 volts dc which makes it more likely that the hardware is not the problem but a software is maybe causing this to hang-up, I attach project and files for your perusal. I also carried out a new project which in scan mode directly linked the module input to shared variable and the same scenerio again. Help would be much appretiated.
Many thanks
Jason
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Attachments:
logger 2plusmodbus2.zip ‏679 KB

Whren using waveform acquisition with the 9234s we recommend the following FPGA and RT template.
http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/209114
it can be extended as a data logger with:
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/6388
or using shared variables combined with scan engine
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/9851
The FPGA in all of these, as well as the RT framework have been used successfully by 1000s of users. I would recommend giving these a try.
Preston Johnson
Principal Sales Engineer
Condition Monitoring Systems
Vibration Analyst III - www.vibinst.org, www.mobiusinstitute.com
National Instruments
[email protected]
www.ni.com/mcm
www.ni.com/soundandvibration
www.ni.com/biganalogdata
512-683-5444

Polling variables using Modbus IP and labview 8.2.0 shared variables

I'm using shared variable in order to read/write register on a Watlow PM controller over Modbus IP standard. Once I make a change to FP control, the shared variable polling starts and I no longer get update of any controls or indicators on the FP.
Just wondering if this is an LV 8.2.0 issue and if any of this is addressed in LV 8.5?
Thx ahead of time
richjoh

Hi richjoh,
If I understand correctly, there are two issues to address: the status of the UpdateNow shared variable and the fact that your controls and indicators are not updating.
When you right-click on UpdateNow in your project and select Properties, what is the data type listed there? Is it bound to one of the other shared variables that has a value in Variable Manager?
After changing a control on the front panel, do you continue to see the values changing in Variable Manager even though the controls and indicators do not update on the front panel? Do you see the same behavior regardless of which control you change?
Thanks for the additional information.
Jennifer R.
National Instruments
Applications Engineer

Datasocket and Shared Variables

I am curious if there is any advantage to using Datasocket to read/write shared variables (as opposed to a direct read/write). I'm specifically talking networked shared variables here.
Is there any speed advantage to accessing shared variables thru the Datasocket functions? Since both a direct read/write and a Datasocket PSP read/write talk to the same variable engine I assume they are equally efficient but I'm looking for confirmation here. I've seen benchmarks for shared variable performance but none of them use DS/PSP to access the variables.
Normally I would not even think of using Datasocket to access shared var's but where I currently work we have a large app that does this and it works great. I suspect that this functionality only exists in LV8.x for backward compatibility and non-Windows OS compatibility and is not really meant to be used for new, Windows-based apps? Am I off base on this?
I am working in LV 8.5, BTW.....

Hello Jared,
Thank you for the reply with clarification.
Based on your comment, I changed the buffer parameters and also tried the programs with two different data types, previously StringArray and now String.
In the attached LV8.6 project, you have all the programs, and shared variable library to review my tests.
There are two sets of two files - each set has a Write Shared Variable and Read Shared Variable file. One set is for StringArray type Shared Variable (named StrArr in the library), and the other set is for String type Shared Variable (named Str in the library).
String Array example:
MultipleDS-Write-SharedV-StrArr.vi / MultipleDS-Read-SharedV-StrArr.vi
In my String Array shared variable, I use only 4 element array, each having 4 character strings - meaning 16 bytes per String Array data. I have two loops in the write file, writing to the same variable, an array of 4 strings, each loop continues until the loop index is >0. This means, sometimes, depending on the processor speed, the variable will be written 3 times or 4 times (the variable could have a new value before the loop condition is checked).
So this means, if I have buffer of 100 bytes (16*4=64<100), it's enough for 4 such arrays (of 4 elements, each element with 4 characters) could be buffered to have sufficient time at the client (Read) program to read them.
I am putting 2048 bytes in buffer, which is much more than sufficient in my case.
The writer loops run with 200 ms to wait for each iteration. The reader loop runs with 100 ms in DS timeout and 100 ms in wait timer. This gives results without any loss. However, if I run the reader loop with 1000 ms to wait for each iteration, the data is lost. The buffer is not maintained for 2048 bytes.
In the read program, just to make sure if all data is read or not, I am showing data in two different string indicators, showing data of each loop.
String example:
MultipleDS-Write-SharedV-Str.vi / MultipleDS-Read-SharedV-Str.vi
The String Array shared variable didn't show values in the Distributed System Manager. Hence, I created another simple variable with String datatype.
The writer program writes strings of 4 characters, one-by-one, in two loops. Meaning, total 8 strings of 4 characters each are written in the "Str" Shared variable.
The reader program, however, doesn't always display all the 8 strings. Although the wait timer is not high (slow) it still misses some data usually. Data is overwritten even before the buffer is filled (in buffer, I have defined 50 strings with 4 elements in each).
In both of the Read programs, I read using datasocket. I think thought datasocket has more ability to buffer. Earlier I had "BufferedRead" in DataSocket, which I have changed to just Read, because BufferedRead didn't give any special buffer advantage in the Shared Variable reading.
---- This is an update on the issue.
Ok, just while typing the last paragraph above, regarding datasocket, something clicked in my mind, and I changed the DataSocket functions to simple Shared variables (completely eliminating datasocket functions) in the read programs as well. And bingo, the buffer works as expected, even if I have reading loops very very slow, there is no data loss in any of the program sets.
The two changed Read programs are also included in the attached project - MultipleSV-Read-SharedV-Str.vi and MultipleSV-Read-SharedV-StrArr.vi
So this means, I can completely eliminate DataSockets (not even using PSP URLs in DataSocket Open/Read functions) from my programs.
One question here, what will be an advantage of this (or any side effects that I should be keeping in mind)?
Vaibhav
Attachments:
DataSocket.zip ‏71 KB

Creating and loading 4000 shared variables

I need some help laying out the design of this system. The data is coming over reflective memory. I've written a dll and a simple server to do the interface between the reflective memory and shared variable engine. Everything seems to be working. The problem I am having is with scaling the application up to handle approximately 4000 variables. I have a spreadsheet to manage the reflective memory allocation and can use it to import the shared variable definitions with the names from the system that is writing the data.
I am having trouble deciding on the best way to proceed. I would like to read a buffer from reflective memory instead of reading 4000 times. I also would like the server to read in a file that defines the association between the shared variable and reflective memory address. The problem I am having is getting the data out of an array into each of the shared variables. I don't see a way to load the value of a shared variable using the property node (so that I can do this inside a loop). I also can't setup an alias that would access an array element. I don't want to manually create 4000 variables.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.

I have never had to resort to creating Shared variables programatically so I will leave that for others.
I would cheat.
In LV 7.1 DSC i could import my tag config from a csv file. After importing and saving in LV 7.1 I could let LV create the SV's when the code is updated.
THat all assumes I will only have to do that one.
I have used the interupts fired when SCRAMNet locations update to "steer" the value to appropriate code which could then in turn update the SV using a datasocket write since I can compose the URL for the SV dynamically.
Just sharing ideas,
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

Shared Variables using Two Computers and Crossover Cable

I'm just trying to put together a simple bench test tying two computers together by a crossover cable. They ping correctly to each other. I used the LabVIEW examples for TCP connections and they talk correctly that way too. I try to build and deploy shared variables on one computer, but the other computer will not identify the SV's on the first computer and vice versa.
Can someone give me some details on how to build, deploy, and effectively use SV's? I've read all the NI documentation, but I'm not getting the step-by-step approach very well.
Thanks.
Nathan - Certified LabVIEW Developer
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Go to Solution.

Are you making them network published shared variables and binding them to each other? This doc gives a pretty good step by step:
http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/7815BCE435DCC432862575DA006FEBF8
--Ryan

Issue with use of shared variables in Crystal Reports 2008 Offline Viewer

Hi,
I have a report that contains a number of sub-reports which include drill-down functionality. The report returns data relating to an individual team with the user being able to view top level summary information in each area from the parent report and then drill into the sub-reports to view see more detail. The data returned by the sub-reports is filtered, using sub-report links, based on the team code parameter value given by the user. This parameter field resides in the main report.
One of the values returned by the main report is the team name. This is passed to each sub-report using a shared variable and each sub-report displays this team name as part of a heading.
This all works fine in Crystal Reports 2008, but when a report, containing data, is opened using Crystal 2008 Offline Viewer there is a problem with the shared variable. The value is displayed correctly when the user initially drills into the sub-report. However, when the user begins to drill into grouped data within the sub-report the value passed to the sub-report using the shared variable disappears.
How can I ensure that, when a report is viewed using Crystal Offline Viewer 2008, the value within the shared variable is not lost when users drill into grouped data within sub-reports
Thanks
Stuart

Please re-post if this is still an issue or purchase a case and have a dedicated support engineer work with you directly:
http://store.businessobjects.com/store/bobjamer/DisplayProductByTypePage&parentCategoryID=&categoryID=11522300?resid=-Z5tUwoHAiwAAA8@NLgAAAAS&rests=1254701640551

Peculiar behavior of Shared Variable RT FIFO

I'm trying to "leverage" the enhanced TCP/IP and Shared Variable properties of LabView 8.5. My application involves (among other things) doing continuous sampling (16 channels, 1KHz/channel) using 6-year-old PXIs (Pentium III) and streaming data to the host. I developed a small test routine that was more than capable of handling this data rate, even when I had the host put a 20msec wait between attending to the PXI (to simulate other processing on the host). To do this, I enabled the "RT FIFO" property of the Shared Variable (which was an array of 16 I16 integers) and specified a buffer size of 50 (that's 50 arrays). Key to making this work was figuring out the "error codes" associated with the SV RT FIFO, particularly the one that says the FIFO is empty (so don't save the "non-data" that is present).
Flush with success, I started developing a more realistic routine that involves rather more traffic between Host and Remote, including the passing back and forth of "event" data. These include, among other things, "state variables" to enable both host and remote to run state machines that stay "in sync"; in addition, the PXI also acquires digital data (button pushes, etc.) which are other "events" to be sent to the Host and streamed to disk. I developed the dual state-machine model without including the "analog data" machine, just to get the design of the Host/Remote system down and deal with exchanging digital data through other Shared Variables. Along the way, I decided to make these also use an RT FIFO, as I didn't want to "miss" any data. One problem I had noticed when using Shared Variables is the difficulty of telling "is this new?", i.e. is the variable present one that has been already read (and processed) or something that needs processing. I ended up adopting something of a kludge for the events by including an incrementing "event ID" that could be tested to see if it was "new".
Today, I put the two routines together by adding the "generate 16-channels of integer data at 1 KHz and send it to the Host via the Shared Variable" code to my existing Host/Remote state machine. I used exactly the same logic I'd previously employed to monitor the RT FIFO associated with this Shared Variable (basically, the Host reads the SV, then looks at the error code -- a value of -2220 means "Shared Variable FIFO Read Buffer Empty", so the value you just read is an "old" value, so throw it away). Very sad -- my code threw EVERYTHING away! No matter how slowly the Host ran, the indicator always said that the Shared Variable FIFO Read Buffer was empty! This wasn't true -- if I ignored the flag, and saved anyway, I saw reasonable-looking data (I was generating a sinusoid, and I saw numbers going up and down). The trouble was that I read many more points than were actually generated, since I read the same values multiple times!
Looking at the code, the error line coming into the Shared Variable (before it was read) was -2220, and it remained so after it was read. How could this be? One possibility is that my other Shared Variables were mucking up the error line, but I would have thought that the SV Engine handling reading my "analog data" SV would have set the error line appropriately for my variable. On a hunch, I turned of the RT FIFO on the two Event shared variables, and wouldn't you know, this more-or-less fixed it!
But why? What is the point of having a shared variable "attached" to an error line and having it return "Shared Variable FIFO Read Buffer Empty" if it doesn't apply to its own Read Buffer? This seems to me to be a very serious bug that renders this extremely useful feature almost worthless (certainly mega-frustrating). The beauty of the new Shared Variable structure and the new code in Version 8.5 is that it does seem to allow better and faster communication in real-time using TCP/IP, so we can devote the PXI to "real-time" chores (data acquisition, perhaps stimulus generation) and let the PC handle data streaming, displays, controls, etc.
Has anyone been successful in developing a data-streaming application using shared variables between a PXI and and PC, particularly one with multiple real-time streams (such as mine, where I have an analog stream from the PXI at 16 * 1KHz, a digital stream from the PXI at irregular intervalus, but possibly up to 300 Hz, and "control" information going between PC and PXI to keep them in step)? Note that I'm attempting to "modernize" some Version 7 code that (in the absence of a good communication mechanism) is something of a nightmare, with data being kept in PXI memory, written on occasion to the PXI hard drive (!), and then eventually being written up to the PC; in addition, because the data "stayed" on the PXI, we split the signal and ran a second A/D board in the PC just so we could "see" the signal and create a display. How much better to get the PXI to send the data to the PC, which can sock it away and take samples from the data stream to display as they fly by on their way to the hard drive!
But I need to get Shared Variables (or something similar) working more "understandably" first ...
Bob Schor

Bob,
The error lines passed into and out of functions are just just clusters with a status boolean, an error code, and an error string, and are not "attached" to a particular function as you describe in your post. Most functions have an error in input and an error out output, and most functions will simply do nothing except pass through the error cluster if the error in status is True (to verify this for yourself, double click on a function such as a DAQmx Read or Write and look at the block diagram. If there is an error passed in, no read/write occurs). This helps prevent unwanted code from executing when an error does arise in your program. By wiring the error cluster from your other shared variables to your analog data variable, you're essentially telling LabVIEW that these functions are related and that your analog data variable depends requires that the other shared variables are functioning properly. The error wire is a great way to enforce the flow of your program, but you must always consider how it will affect other functions if an error does arise.
Anyways, it's great that you have things more or less working at the moment. Keep us all updated!

Unused shared variables and vi's

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