Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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communication via TCPIP with an oscilloscope

I try to communicate via TCPIP with a digital oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS3000B series). First of all; Is that possible or do I need a GPIB interface? Where can I find an exact description of the commands? So far I could build a connection, but nothing happens on commands like "clearmenu", ... Is the protocol I am using anyway GPIB? I found a labview file tktds3k.vi - could I use or modify this file.

I'm happy about any kind of suggestions-there must be someone communicating with an oscilloscope!? thanks, Felix
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Felix,

I personally don't have experience using this oscilloscope but we do have a LabVIEW instrument driver for this device:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E942C659CE034080020E74861

There is more information to be found about these types of drivers here:

http://www.ni.com/idnet

Hope that helps!

Craig H.
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Thanks for your help. I still get an error message in the initialize VI: code: BFFF0011, source: VISA Open in tktds3K Initialize.vi. Is it possible that I don't have to enter a Port number, only TCPIP::::INSTR ?

thanks, Felix
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Felix,

Were you able to download the driver that Craig suggested? If so, there should be info on how to use the vi's. If you press ctrl+h the context help box will open and when you scroll over the vi's it will give you a description of them. Try this and repost if you still have questions.

JenK
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Thanks, I tried all this already. I found I have to enter as adress TCPIP::::INSTR, but don't I need to send a port number? The error message I get is the one I wrote above in my last message. Maybe it's a system problem (I'm using a MAC)....? The communication via e-scope is working. Do you have any suggestions?

thanks, Felix
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The error you are getting is:
VISA: (Hex 0xBFFF0011) Insufficient location information or the device or resource is not present in the system.
Are you sure that your device is configured properly, powered on, and connected?
The following site gives a description of your instrument. There is a data sheet at this site that you might want to take a look at to make sure that you can use TCPIP communication with your device.

Check out this discussion forum, it might address your issue.

Hope this helps.

JenK
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Hi JenK,

Thanks for the tips so far, but I'm still not successful. I'm quite sure my device is connected properly, because the communication over a textronix program e-scope is working. With the Labview program I still get the same error message. The error occurs already in the VISA open function, althought I enter exactly the string the help tells me to enter (TCPIP::IPadress::INSTR), the adress I'm using must be right because it works via e-scope.

Is it possible that this Tktds vi doesn't work on a MAC OS 9.X ? Or do I have to configure the VISA port or something similar?

I hope you or anyone has an idea,

Felix
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Are you sure that your scope supports VXI-11 for TCP instrument communication? Given IP 192.168.0.1, this VISA resource descriptor will access a VXI-11 instrument (VXI-11 specifies the ports for communication in its specification, so you don't need this in the descriptor) "TCPIP::192.168.0.1::INSTR".

If your instrument does not support VXI-11 and you want access it via VISA using straight TCP to a specific port number (port 5555 in this example), use the descriptor "TCPIP::192.168.0.1::5555::SOCKET". Also, make sure you are running a newer version of VISA since VXI-11/ Raw Socket support hasn't been around as long as VISA has. If it's referenced in the helpfile (for viOpen) then it should support these resource descriptor formats.

Hope this helps.

Scott B.
GPIB Software
National Instruments

Message Edited by ScottieB on 04-11-2005 09:55 AM

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