VisaNs with Agilent gpib card

[Brian_Bidwell]

Hello,

VisaNs for .net is very nice.  My question is if one had an Agilent gpib card and wanted to use it, would they install the agilent card's drivers w/o the Agilent Visa and then install the NI visa for .net?  Would a program written with the VisaNS in VB.net 2005 work with an Agilent gpib card?

Visa Com is universal with Aglent or NI or who evers gpib cards.  Is the same true for the VisaNS for .net 2005?

Thanks!

[Meghan R]

Hello Brian,

VISA for .Net is part of the VISA driver, so it should be compatible with the same GPIB cards that NI-VISA is. 

Thanks,

Meghan
Applications Engineer

[Brian_Bidwell]

Meghan,

Thanks for the info.  My point of confusion is still this.  With VisaCom you don't have to include the specific National Common  file like you do with VisaNS or NI488.2.  It seems that the Common assembly would be specific to NI cards.  Is that correct?

Brian

[Meghan R]

Hi Brian,

Yes, the Common Assembly is specific to NI products.

Let me know if you need anything else!


Meghan
Applications Engineer

[Brian_Bidwell]

One can use either the Agilent or NI card with the VisaNS (Visa Namespace).  This is so much better than visa-com.  For example this program will work with either NI or Agilent gpib cards in Visual Basic 2005.

Public

Class Form1 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click Dim pna As New NationalInstruments.VisaNS.GpibInterface("GPIB0::16", NationalInstruments.VisaNS.AccessModes.NoLock, 5000, False)  'this line can be changed to do 488.2, LAN, Serial, USB etc etc.

pna.write(

"*IDN?;" & vbCrLf)

TextBox1.Text = pna.ReadString

End Sub

End

Class

To use with NI card....

1) Install  .net visa 2.0 languages Support under NI measurement and Automation & Development support

2) Install GPIB under runtime support DO NOT INSTALL TULIP.

To use an Agilent gpib card....

1)  Install Agilent Suite io 14.2  Most of the stuff is junk and can be removed (IVI etc)

2)  Use the Agilent Visa as the primary visa

3)  Go to add/remove programs and National.  Install the TULIP support under Runtime Support.

The beauty of the NI VISANS is that with only about 1 line of code change one can use LAN, GPIB (VISA OR NI.4882) or serial.  It is so much simplier than then VISA or VISA-COM.