Instrument Control (GPIB, Serial, VISA, IVI)

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questions re: GPIB-ENET, LabView 5 and 7, license and Win XP

We have a full development version of LabView 5.0 on a Win 98 SE machine, and just acquired a GPIB-ENET box that came with Solaris drivers. I loaded the GPIB and VISA software on LabView 5.0 and tried to connect to test the setup to no avail. It appears that all of the drivers are present. I believe that my problem is that I can�t get the IPAssign network driver bound to the 3Com ethernet card. When I load it in network properties, it doesn�t offer any hardware to bind to it. If I run IPAssign anyway, it claims the only networking hardware available is dialup, and sits forever (probably waiting to connect to a dialup line).

The ultimate plan is to upgrade to LabView 7, and install it with the GPIB-EN
ET box on a Win XP system. I have a demo version of 6.1, so I loaded that on the XP machine and tried again. LabView 6.1 appears to be missing drivers for GPIB-ENET, and looking through the knowledge base tells me a driver bug leaves Win XP incapable of assigning an IP address to GPIB-ENET anyway.

My questions are:

1. Should it be possible to get LabView 5.0 with 98SE talking to the older GPIB-ENET box, at least to set the IP address? Is this failing because I need to download the license (p/n 778258-02)?
2. If I order LabView 7 and install it on Win XP, will I still need to download the license to run it, or is that included in version 7?
3. Once I get LabView 7 and the driver and the license (if necessary) will I be able to assign the IP address with this setup?
4. If the answer to #1 is �yes, with a license� and to #3 is �no�, then can I download the license, use it to assign an IP address on LabView 5 and transfer it to LabView 7/ Win XP when I get it to use the GPIB-EN
ET box?

Thanks.
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Hello,
Which version of the GPIB drivers are you using? We recommend using NI-488.2 v2.0 for your GPIB-ENET device (for Windows XP and Windows 98).

1. Should it be possible to get LabView 5.0 with 98SE talking to the older GPIB-ENET box, at least to set the IP address? Is this failing because I need to download the license (p/n 778258-02)?
A: If you have version 2.0 of the drivers, you should be able to assign the IP okay. Do you see a pattern in the LEDs flashing? Check the READY LED and see if you see a pattern, as this indicates an error code. The following formula can be used to find the error code:
error code= (long flashes-1)(short flashes-1)example: 3 long flashes, and 9 short flashes = (3-1)(9-1) = 28

If the READY LED does not stop flashing, it indicates that the GPIB-ENET does not have a valid IP address assigned to it. According to this KB:
The problem is the Ethernet address. The field for the Ethernet address in the IPAssign Utility is meant for the last four digits of the Ethernet address on your GPIB-ENET (the first part of the address is the same for all GPIB-ENETs, so it is pre-filled for you). If you run the IPAssign Utility again and fill in the last four digits of your GPIB-ENET's Ethernet address (in the format: xx:xx), then you should be able to assign it an IP address successfully.

More details: The Receive LED flashes because the Ethernet header for the packet is correct and the GPIB-ENET recognizes that; However, the header was actually duplicated when you entered the Ethernet address in the IPAssign Utility, so it did not match the exact Ethernet address of that particular GPIB-ENET. The only numbers that need to be entered into the Ethernet address field in the IPAssign Utility are the last 4 numbers in the format: xx:xx.

Note: The user must decide what the IP address is going to be. Your IT department could probably help.The Ethernet Address however, is statically programmed into each ENET. It's usually labeled at the bottom of the unit.

Also, refer to this KB regarding some IP issues we've had with some of the older GPIB-ENET devices.

2. If I order LabView 7 and install it on Win XP, will I still need to download the license to run it, or is that included in version 7?
A: You should uninstall and reinstall NI-488.2 v2.0. If you already have this driver, you will not need to re-license it. The driver is not included with LabVIEW 7.0 by default.

3. Once I get LabView 7 and the driver and the license (if necessary) will I be able to assign the IP address with this setup?
A: You should be able to assign the IP fine. Look at the response for first question above to make sure you are assigning the IP correctly.
Anu Saha
Academic Product Marketing Engineer
National Instruments
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Thanks for the help. I worked with several folks in NI tech support to finally get this resolved, and want to update this for future reference.

1. We did get the IP Assign to work with Win98 and LabVIEW 5, but I needed to do the following:
a. purchase and install the licensed version of 488.2 version 2.
b. uninstall all of the years of built up networking devices and protocols under networking properties. I ended up with only TCP/IP and a single ethernet card.

After that I ran MAX and tried IP Assign again. It wouldn�t load but said that �Assign IP address must install additional network support after which you will need to restart your computer. Assign IP address will only need to do this once. You may also be prompted for your
Windows Setup CD or floppies.� Thinking this a good sign, I pressed OK. It reported �Your system only allows 1 instance of NI IP Assign protocol�, then �Additional network support successfully installed. Please restart your computer and run Assign IP address again.� A reboot didn�t ask for any Windows networking stuff. IP Assign afterwards resulted in the same error and same results. After not once, not twice, but THRICE repeating this, I went into networking properties myself and manually removed and reinstalled TCP/IP. This time on shutdown it did reload Windows networking files and after reboot IP Assign came up, showing only the 3COM card. This time it set the address immediately.

2. NI folks confirmed that there is a bug in XP that will not allow IP Assign to setup this box, and I confirmed that is the case even with the license and version 2 driver. However, after it was setup it communicated fine on XP with LabVIEW 7. I did need to update the firmware, and this als
o went fine on XP using the version 2 MAX application.
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