Interfacing RS232 with Keithley 2420 series using labview 5.0

[siva0182]

Dear all

I would like to thank all the people here for helping alot to all people.

I am a begineer to Lab view and instrument control.I am trying to interface Keithley 2420 source meter by aRs232 serial.

I have seen some posts onthis and have read some tutorials on these topics.

I have downloaded the corresponding driver.

1.But I do have labview version 5 only so is it possible to upgrade free of cost to labview 8 as trhe driver requires minimum version 8.

2.Also If i install Visa and the drivers that should be enough for data acquistion I guess?Is it correct.

3.Will the driver convert the dat read in the form of strings to numerical values.?

4.If I use the drivers I need not use VISA serial vi's Am I correct?

5,Does all labview installations come along with HIQ visual data processing software?

regards

Sivanand Somasundaram

[Dennis_Knutson]

1. The upgrade is not free. You can go to http://ohm.ni.com/advisors/ua and find out how much it will cost to upgrade.

2. Correct

3. Yes

4. The driver uses the VISA functions. Don't understand what you are asking.

5. No. HiQ has not shipped with LabVIEW for quite some time. I don't think it is sold by NI anymore.

[siva0182]

In question 4 I was trying to say that if I used Drivers I need not directly use VISA vi's .Oh got all my clarifications clarified .Thank you.

1. But I am able to find only one driver for Keithley 2400 series source meter for serial connection.But minimum requirement is version 8 of labview.
But i am not sure if i would be able to upgrade immedieately  ..So is there any other solution to interface with labview 5.0?

2.Secondly if I want to use Visa Vi's and interface my instrument using serial connection
   a.How difficult would it be (without the instrument driver?)
   b.what all information should I know to do the same?
   c.Will it be equivalent to writing a driver?

3.Also in the driver it is mentioned as Plug and play style ?Can anyone explain me briefly what it means?

Thanks

[Albert.Geven]

A driver in LabVIEW is a set of vi's that interface your program to the instrument.
VISA is a set of vi's/funtions that build upon the serial and other instrument busses to have a generic platform for instrument communication.
VISA is separating the commandsand data from the bus that is used to send and receive these commands.

For the Keithley 2420 there is an LV driver on the keithley site in labview version 5

http://www.keithley.com/support/data?asset=3982
it is not visa based but if it works you can start.

[siva0182]

I am not able to get any drivers which would work for Keithley 2400 series sourcemeter for Rs232 communication in Labview version 5.

So if I use only Visa vi's will i be able to read data from the instrument without any driver.

I am struggling on this problem for quite a few weeks due lack of knowledge and resources!!!!!

[TobyHex]

Hello Siva0182,
I wanted to double check what you did for the installation of the .llb that Dennis recommended. Did you make sure to extract the files into your instr.lib folder located within Program Files<<National Instruments << LabVIEW 5.0 << instr.lib. As well have to looked at the readme that is included with this .exe that explains the use of their VI's?
Thanks again and have a great day!
Regards,

Nicholas K

[smercurio_fc]

The discussion has moved to here.

[siva0182]

The one recommended by dennis is for GPIB only and does not work for serial communication