IVI and interchangeability

[krugman3]

I am developing a C# application which will talk to some power supplies over TCP/IP. I am not using Measurement Studio.

I would like to have the ability to swap out one or more of these PSUs for another manufacturer's PSU, quite possibly with a different interface, i.e,. serial or USB

I was thinking that IVI would be the way to go as it supports instrument interchangeability, but even looking at the examples on the IVI foundation website, I can't find any examples which do not depend on a specific driver provided by the instrument manufacturer.

I would rather not have to re-compile the code just to swap in a different power supply.

What steps should I take to ensure that I can achieve interchangeability.

Are there any examples which are not tied to a specific manufacturer?

[Dennis_Knutson · Accepted solution]

While you do need an instrument specific driver, you do not directly call it. You call into the class driver, IviScope for example. I can't help with code examples but you should look at the IVI Foundation again. NI only creates IVI-C drivers.

[krugman3]

OK, Thanks Dennis. Looks like we'll just be using VISA. Talking to the other guys where I work, it seems that getting IVI to actually work is a PITA. We have plenty of coders here, so altering the source code to suit a replacement instrument is not such a big deal.

Regards