Questions about IVI--How to Control the Devices?

[pockey]

Hi, everyone!

I'm now needing to write a program to control two devices: Agilent E4438C and E4448A.

My Supervisor said I can use IVI to try first since it could be run in simulation mode.

However, I'm quite new to LabVIEW and only know a little about it. I'm so totally lost...

I know I need to find some documentations, examples or specifications to get a rough idea about the implementation of IVI and try some exist examples...However, I do not know where to find such things quickly and helpfully.

It's always time-consuming for me to search around the Internet...

So could anyone give me some suggestions or recommend some materials to read?

Thanks!

[Ami]

Hi Pockey,

First, open LabVIEW, go to tools, instrumentation, find instrument drivers. I found the a driver for the first Agilent device you mentioned. Good luck with the second one. To download the drivers you will be prompted to create a user name on www.ni.com. You can also search the website for the device drivers. After you have the drivers, look at some of the examples that come with them (Usually good drivers come with a "get started" vi.)

LabVIEW is really fun and I welcome you to the community. Enjoy!

Ami

[pockey]

Thanks, Ami

Why I could not find the one you said for Agilent E4438C?

In the installed instrument drivers, I could only find Agilent 34401, is it the one for E4438C???

And on the webpage of instrument drivers, http://sine.ni.com/idnetwork/main/p/sn/n25:A.agilent

I still could not find the corresponding drivers for E4438C&E4448A...

Does that mean there's no such drivers for the two devices? Then how could I get to know them and learn to control them as well??

[xtal]

NI also offers a LabVIEW Instrument Control course (you can buy just the manual/software separately for self-paced learning) that describes the different communication/driver types such as VISA, GPIB, IVI, etc. and has many exercises to get comfortable with each.

[Ami]

Thanks, Ami

Why I could not find the one you said for Agilent E4438C?

In the installed instrument drivers, I could only find Agilent 34401, is it the one for E4438C???

And on the webpage of instrument drivers, http://sine.ni.com/idnetwork/main/p/sn/n25:A.agilent

I still could not find the corresponding drivers for E4438C&E4448A...

Does that mean there's no such drivers for the two devices? Then how could I get to know them and learn to control them as well??

Pockey,

Don't look under the installed drivers. You have a tool (Open LabVIEW, go to tools, instrumentation, find instrument drivers) that allows you to choose the manufacturer of the hardware, and then search all of the drivers available from that manufacturer. Make sure you are online and that you entered your www.ni.com login (It then searches for the drivers online). That's how I found the E4438C. It also might work for the other one you mentioned. It's worth a try.

Let me know...

Ami

Pockey,

I searched again the link that you provided and I also found the second one. Try again. If you can't find them let me know and I'll upload them for you.

Ami

[pockey]

hi, Ami

I use the tool you said to search for the driver, and i find the E4438C, however, i find two drivers with different technologies, and the drivers are for LabVIEW8.0, not for LabVIEW 8.20.

What are the technologies "PnP", "PnP Proj"? and differences between them?

So could I use the Drivers for LabVIEW 8.0 on LabVIEW 8.20??

It seems no LabVIEW courses in Hong Kong?? And I'm afraid I could not afford the courses as a student trainee ~~~

[Jeff Plotzke]

What are the technologies "PnP", "PnP Proj"? and differences between them?

So could I use the Drivers for LabVIEW 8.0 on LabVIEW 8.20??

The differences between 'PnP' (Plug and Play) and 'PnP Proj' (Plug and Play Driver in a LabVIEW project) is that the 'PnP Proj' takes advantage of the LabVIEW project architecture which debuted in LV 8.0. It's easier for driver developers to organize their drivers and mark VIs as public/private. You can read about the differences of the two here: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/2921

In your case, both of the drivers shown look like they're the same (the same name is on both), but the 'PnP Proj' is newer. (If you look at the revision numbers on the right, the PnP is driver revision 2.0, while the PnP Proj is revision 3.0.

You can certainly use the LV 8.0 driver with LV 8.2, altough it will ask you to re-save the VIs once you start using them since it has to recompile them for LV 8.2. It would probably be wise to do a mass-compile of the driver after you download it using the Wizard. (Tools > Advanced > Mass Compile) After you download the driver, it will tell you where in your instr.lib directory it put it.