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BK2831E

I need a LabVIEW driver for the BK 2831E DMM with USB interface.  I found one from somewhere that does not work and I have been struggling to get it to work for a few very frustrating days.  Just wondering if someone out there has already fought this battle.

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Message 1 of 23
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Hi hartzde,

 

I checked our driver library and found a good amount of B&K drivers, but was unable to find your specific model.

 

http://search.ni.com/nisearch/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/tech/lang/en/pg/1/sn/ssnav:idr/q/B%26K/

 

Depending on how similar they are, there is another B&K meter that might be a good reference if you do decide to create your own.

 

I would recommend going to www.ni.com/idnet and select "Request a new driver."  

 

Nick

Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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Message 2 of 23
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And if you want help with the driver you have, attach it or at the very least, provide a link to where you got it. Then you need to provide details on exactly what problems you are having. Include any error codes that you get. What would also help is a screen shot from MAX that shows how the instrument is listed.

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Thanks, Nick.

The meter listed is a IEEE-488 interface and I have a USB interface.

I can get readings in NI-MAX and the Instrument I/O Assistant.  However, when I use the VISA Read, I get a timeout on the second read.  The meter echos the input for the first read.

Bothe of those other methods use a Query followed by a Read, but there is no VISA Query VI.  Does a Query do more than just Write and Read?

 

Dennis

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Hi Dennis,

 

A query is simply a synchronous write followed by a synchronous read.  This is similar to what is found in this example:

 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-21747

 

Dennis Knutson was correct in saying that if you would like some help with your code, a screenshot of the VI where the error is being thrown could be beneficial.  It is recommended that you narrow down your code to the most simple code possible that still creates the error.  If you are able to successfully query in MAX, then it sounds like this is most likely a software issue, but a MAX screenshot might be beneficial as well.

 

Nick

Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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The fact that the NI drivers for other B&K meters are written for GPIB is generally irrelevant. The one I looked at uses VISA for communication and VISA drivers are portable. If your USB instrument is a USBTMC type, then a driver debugged with a GPIB connection would require little to no changes. To add support for a vitual com port of USB connection, the change is to simply add a control for setting serial parameters.

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Attached are:

1.  a MAX screenshot showing the successful *IDN? Query on the DMM.

2.  My Initialize VI that successfully reads the DMM ID, but still reports a timeout error.

3.  My Single Point Read VI that does not read the value from the DMM and reports a timeout error.

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Message 7 of 23
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You are not configuring the termination character for a write. You are appending a line feed when you do the *IDN? command but none of your other writes do this and that is causing the timeouts because the instrument does not understand what you are sending. In the read single point, you did not change the string constant to '\' Codes Display. It's a simple right click option but if you want to skip this with every write, set the termination character for a write as I said in the first line. Look at the 34401 example that comes with LabVIEW.

 

p.s. In the initialize function, writing to the value properties is just silly in my opinion.

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Did you get this working?  I just got one of these and I cannot get labview to talk to it.  I am doing the same thing you are in the attached VI.  The remote icon doesn't turn on on the device and the read fails.  I just get the  command echoed back.  I can talk to it fine in both NIMAX and Agilents IO control untility.  See the attachment for my code.

 

 

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Message 9 of 23
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What is the display format for your string constant?

 

If I could borrow Jeff's magic 8-ball, I'm going to guess your string is set for normal display and is literally sending a backslash and an "n".  Whereas you need to have it show "\ codes" display, where a \n there would be a new line/line feed character.

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