Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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Difference between IVI driver and VXI PnP Driver

There are two type of Instrument Drivers for the same instrument, i.e. IVI Driver and VXI PnP Driver. I want to know what is really the difference between these two and on what conditions which one is better than other?

 

Thanks in Advance

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An overview can be found at http://www.ni.com/white-paper/2921/en/

What programming language are you using?
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Hi M.Jonathan,

 

both driver are a HW abstraction.

The IVI driver bases on the idea that a class of instruments (DMM, Scope, ...) support the same functionality. When changing an instrument you normaly have a different command set for these instruments. You have to modify your code. With the IVI layer, all instruments supports the same functions. The communication is done by IVI and driver layer.

 

In the description of the VXI PnP Driver. The VXI PnP is VISA based. The idea of VISA is having one API for all instrumentation buses. Based on VISA VXI PnP provides a pool of functions for instruments including GUIs.

 

'on what conditions which one is better than other' The first question should be: Is there a driver available. Any other reasons depend on the application.

 

Hope, this helps.

 

Philipp

AE | NI-Germany

 

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Thanks for the answers. The programming language I want to use is C#. Yes the drivers are available both IVI and VXI for the same instrument.

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It would help if you mentioned the make and model of the instrument as well where you found the drivers (link, please). The term 'VXI' is actually old and really not used anymore. You should also be aware that IVI drivers come in different flavors. IVI-C drivers come from NI and are written in LabWindows/CVI - an ANSI C compiler. I believe all new drivers from NI are written as IVI except for LabVIEW drivers. Other vendors, such as Keysight might provide an IVI-COM or IVI-.NET driver.
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