Agilent N99XX Series Analyzer Instrument VI - Noticed error

[laport7895]

Hey everyone, this is not a question as much as it is an update. For the Agilent N99XX Series Analyzer the Initalize.VI will return an error due to the name string being different. The VISA Read of *IDN? compares the string to the model. However since Agilent changed the names (from firmware 7.76 of the fieldfox), now it gives an error because the FF sends back the word keysignt instead of Agilent! Just replace the word Keysight instead of Agilent and everything will work again

Useful to know in case someone runs into a problem.

[Dennis_Knutson]

This would not be unique to just this instrument. As Keysight updates the firmware for all of their instruments, any driver that searches for Agilent in the id string will fail. I don't know if NI is busy updating existing drivers but the correct procedure would be to add id strings with Keysight in them instead of replacing Agilent. That way you maintain compatibility with older instruments.

[jjp377]

We have been updating Agilent drivers to include both Agilent and Keysight (as Dennis mentioned for backwards compatibility).

We started with the drivers we have scheduled to update (supporting new models or commands) and we will try to work on the popular drivers next.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Quite a job ahead of you. While I can sort of understand Keysight wanting to change the id, I wonder if they considered just how many existing applications are going to fail when customers update the firmware or buy a new instrument.