Driver for Agilent 86100A

[Rafi2003]

In my search for the above driver I came up with 3:
1) From Agilent, called: VXplug&play Instrument DRiver (requires
LabWindows/CVI 4.0 or higher)

2) By NI, called: Infinium DCA Wide Bandwidth Osciloscope (PNP driver
requires LabWindows/CVI 6.0 and VISA 2.5.2)

3) By NI, Called: Infinium Digital Communications Analyser (IVI driver
requires LabWndows/CVI 5.5 and VISA 2.6.0)

a) What are the considerations to choose the best driver? (I'm using
TestSTand 2.0 with CVI 5.5).

b) Is driver No. 2 out of the question as it needs CVI 6.0?

c) Generally speaking, is IVI driver better than just VXIPnP driver?

d) Any idea why this instruments has two different names (see driver
2,3)?

Thanks

[Ray K]

a) You need to determine whether or not you need IVI functionality. If you're distributing applications, keep in mind that you'll have to install the IVI engine or IVI compliance package on any machine that uses the IVI driver.

b) The FP file formats did not change from 5.5 to 6.0, so it may work, but there may have been some compiler changes. You can test out the driver, but I'd personally just not use this driver.

c) IVI offers instrument interchangeability and features like state caching, range checking, etc so an IVI driver is better. However you need to install additional software (engine) and you may not need the extra features IVI offers.

d) You'll note that both of those drivers are contributed drivers (see the top of the download pages). Those are probably the names that each of the contributors listed for them.

[Rafi2003]

Thank you Ray,

You've been most helpful.

I guess the reoson I was interested in IVI drive is because there the
driver Wizard including in CVI is helping you to develop an IVI
driver. Since I'm planning on using this Wizard to develop some
srivers, I thought it would be a good idia to use IVI driver whenever
I can. Is that a logical conclusion?

Thanks
Rafi

[Ray K]

The IVI driver wizard is for creating an IVI driver and not for developing an application that uses an IVI driver. If you are using the IVI driver wizard, then you have instruments that do not have driver for them.

Even if this is the case, programming an IVI driver is much more complicated that programming a plug and play driver and unless you need the additional functionality of the IVI driver, I highly suggest just building your drivers as plug and play drivers.

[Rafi2003]

Thanks Ray,

In order to create an IVI driver you have the Wizard for it. How do
you create a "normal" plug and play" driver?

I don't expect you to cover this issue in your answer...but, where is
the starting point?

Thanks
Rafi

[Ray K]

Go here:
http://www.ni.com/devzone/idnet/learn.htm

Clicking on the "Learn" and "Develop" headings on the left hand side of the page bring up number of informative pages.