I need help getting my Newport 2931-C optical power meter to talk to LabView

[DaleH]

I've installed the latest drivers from Newport and they simply won't connect to the instrument.  The non-Labview based software included works and is communicating fine, but the sample Labview VIs can't find the instrument.  I assume it must be an addressing issue, but the VIs don't have a parameter to select the instrument - I think it's supposed to be automatic as far as I can tell, as there is no variable for me to select. I'm running Labview 2010 SP1 and Windows 7 64 bit.

Has anybody dealt with this?

[smercurio_fc]

Where did you get the drivers? Do you have a download link?

[DaleH · Accepted solution]

I believe I solved the problem.  I am using the 32 bit version of LabView but I had installed the 64 bit drivers (obtained from Newport.)  By uninstalling and then reinstalling the 32 bit on 64 bit machine driver option I seem to have solved the problem.

[Josh_L1]

Hi DaleH,

Do you have NI 488.2 driver installed on your computer? This driver is needed for GPIB communication. You can verify if this software is installed on your computer by expanding the software option tree in MAX. It will be listed there. If the driver is not there, I've included the download link below for your reference.

https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-488-2.html

Once you have downloaded and installed the latest driver, please refresh MAX. You should be able to see GPIB device under Devices and Interfaces.  

Could you also elaborate on the "sample LabVIEW VIs"? Are the sample LabVIEW VIs included with this device or are you trying to run the sample VIs from LabVIEW? The VISA open function requires the user to identify a physical channel. To the best of my knowledge, there is no auto detect option.

In any case, I've also included a of general troubleshooting article for your reference below.

https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000PAcVSAW&l=en-US

I hope this helps.

Josh L.

[DaleH]

Josh - I do have the NI 488.2 driver installed and GPIB communication is working for other devices.  The sample LabView VIs I was referring to are included in the Newport drivers, which are located at ftp://download.newport.com/Photonics/Power%20Meters/Current/x935_x931_1918-C_%20Inst%20CD/Version2-5...  I believe everything is working correctly now, thanks very much!. 

[pueller]

Dale is correct. I just went thru the same thing. You must install the "x86Onx64" drivers for the LabVIEW examples to work with 32-bit LabVIEW running on an x64 machine.

Glad I found this post, save me a ton of time! Don't reinvent the wheel!