Deploy the Bus Monitor configuration file using the Configuration Tool within NI-VCOM.

  1. Navigate to the Configuration Tool within NI-VCOM.
  2. Select Enable from the Bus Monitor drop-down menu.
  3. Save the Bus Monitor configuration file.
  4. Deploy the Bus Monitor configuration file to your target.
  5. Run your NI-VCOM application with the Bus Monitor configuration file through VeriStand or LabVIEW.

Using the Bus Monitor to View Communication Data

Before you begin, ensure that the Bus Monitor is enabled in the configuration file for your NI-VCOM application.
  1. Navigate to the Bus Monitor page within the NI-VCOM WebUI.
  2. Specify the Server Address and Server Port for the Bus Monitor.
    • The Server Address is the IP address of the machine running the NI-VCOM application (VeriStand, LabVIEW, etc.). The default server address is "localhost".
    • The Server Port is the Ethernet port that the NI-VCOM application uses to establish the connection with the Bus Monitor tool. The default server port is "50012". The server port should not be occupied by other applications. If other applications use the default port number, you must specify an available port number in the configuration file. You must also specify an available port number in the server port. If the port number you specify in the server port does not match the port number in the configuration file, the Bus Monitor cannot connect to the NI-VCOM application.
  3. Optional: To view decoded signal values or plot signal values in a graph, specify the Bus Monitor configuration file. Skip this step if you only want to view raw frames.
    1. Click Settings.
    2. Click Change Configuration File.
    3. Select a configuration file and click Load.
      The configuration file you choose appears in the Loaded Configuration File dialog. Each port and their respective network descriptors populate the Bus Monitor Settings table. If the tool cannot load a network descriptor, an error () appears in the table.
  4. Select the protocol you want to monitor.
    NI-VCOM supports simulating more than one protocol in the same application. The Bus Monitor can monitor all the protocols simulated in a NI-VCOM application. However, you can only view one type at a time, so you must select the protocol you want to monitor.
  5. Click the following tabs to monitor results.
    • The Monitor tab displays the most recent network frame data. Each row in the Monitor table shows the frames with the same port and direction.
    • The ID Logger tab displays historical network frame data in order of appearance.
    • The Graph tab displays a graph that monitors all signals. Click + to add a monitoring signal and - to remove a monitoring signal.
    Note The Ethernet protocol does not have a ID Logger tab; its Monitor tab functions like the ID Logger tab functions for other protocols.
  6. Optional: Click Filter to filter the Monitor, ID Logger, or Graph tables.
  7. Click Stop to stop the monitor.
After you stop the monitor, you can expand the resultant Monitor and ID Logger table rows to show the signals of each frame. Click Log to Disk to store all received frames in a plain text file.