What's your project framerate? I bet it's not 30 fps. Some emitters are touchy in that their "number" property is linked to 30 fps. If you change it to anything else (usually lower) you may not get any particles.
particleView is hard-coded to 30 fps, so it always works. You can probably tweak the "number" value just a little and it will start working as expected.
Alan.
http://www.wondertouch.com