NI VISA vs Agilent VISA

[PA-Paul]

Hi All,

I have a small problem. A customer is running a system which does various things including acquire data from an agilent oscilloscope connected via Agilents USB interface (USB in the scope).The system and software were developed by another company, but the gist is, the software uses the Agilent IO library to connect to the scope, and that includes Agilent VISA.

I now want to install and run a labview based program which controls a completely independent (at least in terms of control) device on the same PC. My system (written in LV8.6 and run from exe after installation with NI created installer) requires VISA to communicate (via a USB-RS232 adaptor - within labview I simply address the COM port which is installed by the adaptor).

I ran my installer and my device worked fine, but the Agilent Scope then failed to communicate (Error message said : Unable to communicate with device USBInstrument1 on VISA (or words to that effect).

The only way I managed to get the scope to work again was to re-install the agilent IO library. But then of course, my system no longer worked (Error 0xBFFF0012 Invalid resource reference specified. Parsing error).

Initially, I could only get one version of VISA to install at a time, but I did finally mange to install the Agilent as the secondary VISA, but I still had the same problem with the Agilent scope not talking.

Does anyone know of a fix for this kind of problem? I'm not trying to use labview to control the scope, only my other device, but I can't seem to get both things working at once!

Any help very gratefully recieved.

Paul

[Phillip Brooks]

I recall that the Agilent GPIB interfaces need an extra piece of code / dll to be used from LabVIEW; I think it's referred to as a 'tulip' driver. I Googled and found some app notes on the Agilent site:

http://www.home.agil...029&pageMode=AN

Look at the document titled "Tips in Using Agilent GPIB Solutions in National Instrument’s LabVIEW Environment"

[Cat]

Phillip is correct.

Open MAX

Goto Tools --> NI-VISA --> Visa Options

Select "Passports"

Check "NIVisaTulip.dll"

Refresh/Save

Exit Max

Or at least that's how it works in 8.6.1f1

[PA-Paul]

Nothing is using GPIB in the setup (at least not outwardly). The Agilent scope (used by the other companys software) is a direct UBS connection (there's no sign of USB-GPIB unless its internal to the scope). Secondly, since I have only installed a runtime envirnment on the computer, I don't seem to have the options you mention within Max... any other thoughts?

Thanks

Paul

[ShaunR]

Go into the VISA settings and look at the conflict manager..You can force certain visa drivers onto individual com ports.

[Grampa_of_Oliva_n_Eden]

Hi All,

I have a small problem. A customer is running a system which does various things including acquire data from an agilent oscilloscope connected via Agilents USB interface (USB in the scope).The system and software were developed by another company, but the gist is, the software uses the Agilent IO library to connect to the scope, and that includes Agilent VISA.

I now want to install and run a labview based program which controls a completely independent (at least in terms of control) device on the same PC. My system (written in LV8.6 and run from exe after installation with NI created installer) requires VISA to communicate (via a USB-RS232 adaptor - within labview I simply address the COM port which is installed by the adaptor).

I ran my installer and my device worked fine, but the Agilent Scope then failed to communicate (Error message said : Unable to communicate with device USBInstrument1 on VISA (or words to that effect).

The only way I managed to get the scope to work again was to re-install the agilent IO library. But then of course, my system no longer worked (Error 0xBFFF0012 Invalid resource reference specified. Parsing error).

Initially, I could only get one version of VISA to install at a time, but I did finally mange to install the Agilent as the secondary VISA, but I still had the same problem with the Agilent scope not talking.

Does anyone know of a fix for this kind of problem? I'm not trying to use labview to control the scope, only my other device, but I can't seem to get both things working at once!

Any help very gratefully recieved.

Paul

Not directly related ...

Weird syntax for GPIB devices on USB adapters.

Example

1:16

Device 16 on USB 1

Ben

[PA-Paul]

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions. Ended up getting everything working, luckily I'm at a conference and the company responsible for the software that's using the agilent were here. They confirmed that they're software should work with the NI VISA system alone installed (they simply require a visa installation of some kind). We tried removing the agilent visa, but still had no luck talking to the scope. Then we downloaded a full version of the latest NI VISA from the ni website, installing that fixed the problem with no faffing around in settings.

I wonder if the issue stemmed from the fact I was running an installer created in labview which only installed a VISA runtime environment rather than a full VISA install... Also the version of VISA which was being installed by my installer was only 4.4 not the latest 5.

Anyway, all working now!

Thanks

Paul

[BrianJensen]

since I have only installed a runtime envirnment on the computer, I don't seem to have the options you mention within Max... any other thoughts?

I have a similar problem.

I've created a vi that uses an Agilent USB to GPIB interface. On my development computer I checked the tulip driver in MAX to get the cross link between NI VISA and Agilent Visa going, and this works great. However, on my deployment computers, I do not seem to have MAX installed. I do have the runtimes, and visa installed. Is there a way to get MAX on a computer without a labview license? Or can you link the two VISA's together another way?

[asbo]

I don't know if there's another way to modify your configuration, but you can absolutely install MAX without a LabVIEW license. It's bundled with the NI DAQmx drivers, so run the installer for that and you're good to go. You can find a list of MAX-related downloads on ni.com.

[Rolf Kalbermatter]

I don't know if there's another way to modify your configuration, but you can absolutely install MAX without a LabVIEW license. It's bundled with the NI DAQmx drivers, so run the installer for that and you're good to go. You can find a list of MAX-related downloads on ni.com.

If you happen to include the VISA runtime installer into the application installer you have to make sure to also add the NI-Measurement & Automation Explorer in the Additional Installs settings. DAQmx allows to select several different Install Types with most of them including MAX. VISA runtime only contains the runtime but at least in newer LabVIEW versions you can select MAX as an extra component.