Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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USB based devices

Recently in one of the meetings i attended for designing test system, i was told USB is not reliable for long duration testing( more than 12 hours) . Hence we cannot pick devices that do not work on USB.  How much truth is in it?

 

thanks

Jis

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I would agree if high reliability is required.

 

I've had lockups, disconnections and so on before.  Mileage varies a lot with hardware, but USB seems a little less reliable than other modes.

 

Having said that, I HAVE successfully interfaced with USB devices over several days.

 

Shane

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Pretty much.

 

Power management and drivers are the weak points for USB instruments. 

Computer decides it's time to "be green" and conserve energy?  *bam*... instrument just went offline.

Manufacturers make their money on hardware, and provide just enough driver support to make the thing work.

The drivers usually aren't the best in my experience, so there's memory leaks and crashes that happen more often than not.

 

That said, with a little bit of work you can get USB devices to work for extended periods of time.  Depending on the application and mobility requirements, it may be a better solution than PXI or other more reliable alternatives.

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