First, what I'm trying to do is completely new terrority for me and I've been looking everywhere unable to find found a solution. I've reviewed the following resources and have tried them out but to no avail:
[1] ActiveX and LabVIEW
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/2983/en
[2] ActiveX and COM -- Part I
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/2981/en
[3] Tutorial: Configuring the Call Library Function Node to call a Simple DLL
https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-9069
My problem is I have been given a COM which was installed to run as a Windows 7 service always running in the background (service.msc). So far it only seems to be a hunch that you shoul dbe able to either use:
A) ActiveX in LabVIEW to call the COM object by name or the .dll file.
B) Call the .dll of the service using Call Library Function Node
I can see the COM running as a service if I do ( service.msc). I also can see two .dll files associated with this service (they have the same base name as the running service). Lets say the service is called "TestService" then the other two .dll's are called "TestServicePK.dll" and "TestServiceXY.dll." In testing both ActiveX and Call Library Function Node I have tried calling both .dll files. When I tried the ActiveX approach I get "The selected file is not a .NET assembly, type library or automation executable."
Also the COM binaries were made in C++ but as I understand it should not be an issue at least for the Call Library Function.
This seems to be quite a corner case.