Instron 8800 Control Timeout Issue using NI-VISA (VISA Error code: -1073807339) in C# Application

[engineerjames1987]

I've written an application using C# which queries an Instron 8800 controller (very old controller).  While the program is running I get seemingly random timeout errors (error code defined in title), which eventually lead to an EABO error.  The program will typically start and query fine for 2 - 3 iterations, and then give the aforementioned timeout error.  It will then work for another few iterations and timeout again.

I've adjusted bus timing values per Instron's suggestion, but to no avail--does anyone have any ideas?  I've attemped using both the GpibInterface and MessageBasedSession classes.

Code below:

using NationalInstruments.VisaNS;

namespace niVISAInstronTest
{
 public partial class Form1 : Form
 {
 private MessageBasedSession mbSession;
 private GpibInterface instron_GPIB;

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer_Cyclic.Enabled = true;
textBox1.Enabled = false;
button1.Enabled = false;
GPIB_Address = textBox1.Text;
instron_GPIB = new GpibInterface(GPIB_Address, AccessModes.NoLock, 0, false);
instron_GPIB.SendEndEnabled = true;
instron_GPIB.Timeout = 10000;

}
private void timer_Cyclic_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
WriteToConsole(Query("Q210").ToString());
}
/// <summary>
/// 500ms timeout seems to work best so far
/// </summary>
/// <param name="query"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public double Query(string query)
{
double response = -1;
try
{

//response = double.Parse(mbSession.Query(query));
instron_GPIB.Write(query);
string response_s = instron_GPIB.ReadString();
response = double.Parse(response_s);
return response;
}
catch (Exception EX)
{
WriteToConsole(EX.GetBaseException().ToString());
}

return response;
}
public void WriteToConsole(string msg)
{
textBox_Console.Text += Environment.NewLine + msg;
textBox_Console.SelectionStart = textBox_Console.TextLength;

textBox_Console.ScrollToCaret();
}

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

Try NI-488.2 instead of VISA.

I once had old HP counters, and I found that using NI-488.2 worked better with them.

[engineerjames1987]

I have re-written the program utilizing Ni-488.2 libraries, but am still having a similar issue.  Is there any other things that I could try (I have posted the new code below):

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using NationalInstruments.NI4882;

namespace niVISAInstronTest
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        Device instron_GPIB;
                
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        
        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            
            timer_Cyclic.Enabled = true;
            textBox1.Enabled = false;
            button1.Enabled = false;

            instron_GPIB = new Device((int)0, (byte)1);
            
            instron_GPIB.IOTimeout = TimeoutValue.T1s;         

        }

        private void timer_Cyclic_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {

                instron_GPIB.Write("Q210\\r\\n");

                WriteToConsole(instron_GPIB.ReadString());

                

                instron_GPIB.Wait(GpibStatusFlags.IOComplete);

            }
            catch (Exception ES)
            {
                WriteToConsole(ES.ToString());
            }

        }

       
        public void WriteToConsole(string msg)
        {
            textBox_Console.Text += Environment.NewLine + msg;

            textBox_Console.SelectionStart = textBox_Console.TextLength;
            
            textBox_Console.ScrollToCaret();
        }

      
    }
}

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

I would personally put in a hard delay between Write and Read and see what happens.

[engineerjames1987]

Just a System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)?  I'll give that a shot--I haven't tried that with NI488.2 libraries yet (though I did try with NI-VISA).  Thanks again for your assistance, i'll report back with how it works!

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

---

@engineerjames1987 wrote:

Just a System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)?

---

Right.

It may be that the instrument needs just a CR or just a NL.

[engineerjames1987]

Even after tryiing that I'm still getting seemingly random timeout (EABO) issues.  I would assume that I might have a hardware problem if there wasn't a LabVIEW program that essentially does the same thing that works perfectly fine.  I've posted a portion of the NI I/O Trace (Though I admit I'm not quite sure what everything means):

Any further ideas?

[DollaBrillz]

What is the most recent piece of code that created this NI I/O Trace and how did it differ from the previous iteration? Do you observe any change when implementing the timing suggestions that were suggested above?

[engineerjames1987]

The second chunk of code posted is the one that created the NI I/O Trace shown above.  To be honest, everything I have tried has ended in the same result (random EABO error/timeout errors).  There is an integrated part of Instron software that can query the controller (and has 0 problem doing so)--I happened to also do a trace to potentially isolate any differences:

To me the only difference between the two is using Send vs. ibwrt on the write command but I am not a pro by any means.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

It looks like the LabVIEW code is using the higher level NI-VISA and not NI-488.2.

Can you confirm?

So, if that is what they are doing, switch back to using NI-VISA while keeping the delay.