Control a Varian Gas Chromatograph with a 10 Base T Ethernet card and LabVIEW?

[Analyst600]

I would like to control a relatively new Varian Gas Chromatograph using LabVIEW. The instrument is presently controlled by a Star workstation (software on PC, with 10 Base T Ethernet communication card through coaxial cable to BNC connector on instrument). Varian says LabVIEW is not suitable to control the instrument. Is this true?

Greg

[Dennis_Knutson]

I'd suspect that all they're trying to do is sell you their star workstation and software but I have no direct experience with the instrument. VISA has the ability to communicate over TCP/IP and there are the regular TCP/IP functions in LabVIEW. LabVIEW is used all of the time for ethernet instruments. Is there a published spec on remote communication or did they explain with any details why LabVIEW wouldn't work?