INITIALISATION ERROR¿

[stevevai]

i have win98,i am reinstalling GPIB-PCII/IIA (ISA) using
TT5260(waynekerr)transformer tester. the GPIB has passed the tests like
IBDIAG.exe and NI trouble shooting wizard.but when i click the TT5260 icon
an error message appears.. T5260 IEEE 488 Initialisation error...Cannot
establish full functionality until GPIB connection to TT5260 is
established..pls. help.

[DiegoF]

Hi,

Although it seems that the board is properly installed, check the Driver download page to verify that you are using the right driver and that the board is IEEE 488.2 compatible.

What exactly do you mean when you says you click on the TT5260 icon?. Are you refering to MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer)?. If so, it seems that MAX was able to detect the instrument and list it under the GPIB interface entry. Is that right?.

If this is the case, that means that the board was able to establish communication with the device and you should focus on the commands you are sending to the instruments.

DiegoF
National Instruments.

[stevevai]

hi,
yes the driver is correct.i just downloaded it about a week ago,
TT5260 is the program i use, its from waynekerr instruments. they are using gpibpcii/iia, but the people who setup the whole thing is from Quantel.
I use MAX explorer and add my GPIB-PCII/IIA when i scan the instruments it is said the board and the software is communicating. it has *IDN..something like that.and the screen display of the instrument has a "REMOTE" indicator....
yes maybe i should focus on the commands, but how em i gonna do that? sorry but i am very new to this 😞
pls. help.

thanks and regards
stevevai

[DiegoF]

Hi,

*IDN? is a standard command that instruct the device to return the ID string. The instrument returns a string with the manufacturer and model name of the instrument.

If you are able to scan for instruments, detect the device and the device responds to the *IDN? query, it means that the GPIB software and hardware are properly installed and working. You can right-click on the instrument icon in MAX and select "Communicate with instrument". When the communicator opens up, press query. This will send the *IDN? and you should see ID string of the instrument.

Another scenario is that the instrument is old and it is not 488.2 compliant. In this situation the device will be detected, but will not respond to the *IDN? query. In this ca
se the instrument is simply not detecting a valid command. You should look in the instrument's user manual and look for a valid command (somthing like ID?, for example). Open the communicator and try the new command. If this is the case, the board and software are also installed correctly.

Finally, It seems that you are using a third party hardware to control the instrument. That is, you are not doing the instrument programming. As I mentioned previously, if you are able to do any of the test, that means that the board is working correctly and the problem is how the software is interfacing to the board. You should review the documentation of the software or contact the vendor for any configuration parameters necesary.

Hope this provides some help.

DiegoF
National Instruments.