Simulating a Keithley 238?

[macAssist]

I have been asked to help troubleshoot a LabView program working with a Keithley 238 board.  I don't have the board and was wondering if there is a way to simulate one in LabView.

I know you can simulate NI boards in LabView, but I'm not as familiar with this Keithley.  The link to its specs is here.

Does anyone have some advice?  Thanks for your help.

Jared.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The only GPIB instruments that have an 'easy' way to simulate them is instruments that have an IVI driver. This instrument doesn't unless the original programmer wrote such a driver. Even with an IVI driver, the simulation is pretty basic. In simulation mode, you can write a command to the instrument without getting an error. You can also do some reads but the returned data is fixed in code. That means that for a DMM, if you did a voltage reading, the returned value is always going to be the same. You can do something similar in the LabVIEW program you have by temporarily replacing all of the instrument reads with a constant. You'd have to disable any error checking on the VISA Reads and Writes as well. How much this will help you to debug the problem will depend on the type of problem it is. The instrument provides a voltage or current to "something" and measures current or voltage from "something". If the problem is with the interface to this undefined "something", then the only way to fix the problem is to have the complete test system available. If the problem is that the program is not providing the correct information to the Keithley or the program is not handling correct data returned by the Keithley, then simulation will help.

[macAssist]

Thanks Dennis.

I appreciate the help.  It's hard to tell sometimes whether there just isn't a solution or utility available or that you just haven't been able to find it.

Jared.