Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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Record gpib commands

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I have an old instrument (magnetometer) with an old computer used for control and DAQ. The instrument is in very good shape, but the computer is very old (early 90s) and uses a proprietary software to communicate with the instrument via GPIB. I would like to replace the computer with a new one and write my own DAQ program in LabVIEW, but I do not have the manual of the instrument and do not know the GPIB commands.

 

Is there any way I can connect another computer to the GPIB interface and 'record' the commands used by the DAQ software from the old computer while the program is running?

 

I read a little bit about NI I/O Trace (formerly NI Spy), but I am not sure if that can work. When I connect two PCs to the instrument, there seems to be some conflict between the two GPIB cards connected to it, I can only 'see' it from one computer.

 

Thanks!

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I/O Trace will work with NI controllers. You can't simply connect two pc's since only one can be the controller in charge. Your other option is to use '+' model controller in the first or second pc. That is a bus analyzer that can capture the low level details.
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Thank you Dennis for the quick reply. Can you give me some more details about this '+' model controller? Is this a piece of software or additional hardware?  

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It's a GPIB controller. Look at the product page.

http://www.ni.com/gpib/
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Thanks Dennis. Just to clarify -  if I had a GPIB Interface and Analyzer board on my new computer (and running NI I/O Trace), I could just connect it to the GPIB board interface of the old computer and ‘record’ the GPIB commands that are sent to the instrument. Is that correct?

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You can run I/O Trace/NI Spy on the old computer if it is using an NI GPIB controller. You would run the analysis program (not I/O Trace on the old computer if you add the analyzer controller to it or from a second pc. The analyzer returns some pretty low level information that you need to weed through. It's intended as a GPIB communication troubleshooting tool. Handy when you are designing an instrument.
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Let me see if I understood well, It´s because I have almost the same situation...

To see the sent commands I need to keep running the proggram in the old computer and read it from another computer and the I/O Trace btu both connected to the same GPIB bus. Is it correct?

PD: I´m new at this forum

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I believe what they were referring to above is using the GPIB Analyzer through a GPIB+ interface to get these low level commands from the old computer. Here is a link with more information about the GPIB Analyzer

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/848F027883BD6429862571B8001DFEDC

 

Since this forum post is more than 2 years old, I would recommend starting a new thread with your specific issue so that it gets more visibility in the community!

Adena L.
Technical Support Engineer
National Instruments
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