MAX crashes when scanning for gpib instruments

[Swapnil]

hmmm.....Thanks for the information, Kevin. I was initially concerned about the version of MAX, but it looks like the problem is following v2.2 of NI 488.2. We are working on this issue here, and I'll go ahead and post further developments as soon as I have newer information. For now, it looks like the workaround might be to just use the older version (v1.7) of NI 488.2 to communicate with TDS3014B.
Again, thank you for choosing National Instruments!

Swapnil P.
National Instruments Engineer

[Swapnil]

Hello Kevin,
Greetings! This particular issue is a known issue with NI 488.2 v2.2: MAX crashes during 'Scan for Instruments' with some instruments without any error message. Again, I'd like to say here that we are working on this issue, but more importantly you can still use NI 488.2 v2.2 to communicate with your device in your program (do not have to go back to version 1.7). Also, you can test your device in MAX, if you do that in the Interactive Control for NI 488.2 (ibic.exe). You can write "*IDN?" from here and read the response from the instrument back without any crashes. The only thing you might not be able to do is to 'Scan for instruments' for this instrument un
der 'Devices and Interfaces'. Apologies for inconvenience.
Again, thank you for choosing National Instruments!

Swapnil P.
National Instruments Engineer

[Kevin_Houston]

What is the disadvantange of using version 1.7 until the issue is solved?

[Swapnil]

Hello Kevin,

There is no specific disadvantage of using 1.7 over version 2.2 and some changes that were made in NI 488.2 v2.2 are mentioned in the v2.2 'Readme' file: http://digital.ni.com/softlib.nsf/954feaeea92d90918625674b00658b83/e269bd7f280e068986256e9700660397?OpenDocument (not necessarily above v1.7, but above some other versions like 2.0 or 2.1). I'd highly encourage you to use version 2.2 since it is the latest version and also it is going to work perfectly fine in your software (as previously discussed, the issue is with MAX only and while doing 'Scan for Instruments' only), and even in MAX, you should be able to test the instrument using ibic
. Also another advantage of 2.2 is that, since you already have v2.2 on your current machine, you do not have to uninstall 2.2 and then install 1.7 😉

Good luck with your application!

Swapnil P.
National Instruments Engineer

[yianni]

I am facing the exact same problem. We have a TDS3014B that crashes MAX when we scan for instruments. Could you please let me know if there is any fix for that problem or a workaround that will allow our engineers to access the instruemnt through LabView?

Thank you,

Yiannis

[ScottieB]

This particular bug was fixed in v2.3 of the driver, which will work on 2000/XP and supports most of our hardware. See www.ni.com/support/gpib/versions.htm for more information.

Scott B
GPIB
National Instruments