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Keysight DAQ970A sending SCPI commands

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Hey Everyone,

 

I am trying to program a Keysight DAQ970A using Labview but I am finding the pre-made instrument control VIs rather lacking as there are several options I cannot set through the VIs.

Does anyone know how to send generic SCPI commands to the instrument using Labview?

 

The specific command I need currently is the ROUTe:CHANnel:DELay specified in the SCPI programming guide which can be found here:

https://www.keysight.com/dk/en/assets/9018-04756/programming-guides/9018-04756.pdf

 

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

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Hi

I'm not a fan of the Keysight IOlibraries. They tend to mix up with the NI visa libraries.

So I did not install all their libs just to understand what they did.

But they should have a VISA write command somewhere and that allows you to send scipi commands to the DAQ system, and a VISA read to read back the answer.

Can you send sone or two of the existing vi's just to see what is in there?

So I can have alook at them to see how they build them?

greetings from the Netherlands
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Solution
Accepted by topic author mc5000

Just try this simple VI to query the Instrument ID if it is set for SCPI communications.

LV2016 VISAwrc.png

Enter into the write buffer ==> *IDN?

Select the correct VISA resource name for the desired Instrument

 

Run the VI and see the results in the read buffer output. 

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May need to append a newline "\n" character to the end of the write buffer.  This should check the integrity of the instrument communications using the LabVIEW VISA primitives.

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Hey Albert and Minions,

 

Thank you for your replies!

The VIs supplied by Keysight use IVI instead of VISA for communication, so all the VIs they supply do is to call .dll files (see screenshots below and attachments, left is initialize and right is measure DC voltage).

mc5000_1-1623746598417.pngmc5000_0-1623746556967.png

 

 

Minions suggestion with simple VISA communication does work (I did not have to add the newline character). I did a simple test VI where I used the supplied VI to initialize and then take turns in changing settings with the IVI VIs and a simple VISA command and it doesn't spawn any errors (also attached as DAQ_Test - IO.vi):

mc5000_3-1623747297447.png

 

However, this approach would mean that I go back and forth between VISA and IVI communication to the same instrument could this not be problematic and potentially lead to communication failure?

Previously I have been advised against opening and closing a VISA port too often in the program as this could lead to errors but I have very little experience with IVI and no experience with mixing IVI and VISA in this way. If I continue with a mix like this do you know if it would be best to keep the VISA port open throughout the program or close it after each VISA command to ensure it is closed when the next IVI command is sent?

 

Best,

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Hi

In IVI there should be a vi that sends a command and reads back data.

Just like VISA but implemented in the IVI layer.

 

It is a loophole to add specific commands that are not available in the generic IVI driver for those kind of instruments.

 

IVI was invented to have a universal interface for standard instruments but because instrument vendors all try to differentiate to sell more instruments it never became a really standard.

Also because there were more IVI implementations that were not compatible it in fact failed.

 

So if you don't need it after implementing your own stuff, you will not miss it.

greetings from the Netherlands
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@Albert.Geven wrote:

Hi

In IVI there should be a vi that sends a command and reads back data.

Just like VISA but implemented in the IVI layer.

 

It is a loophole to add specific commands that are not available in the generic IVI driver for those kind of instruments.

 

IVI was invented to have a universal interface for standard instruments but because instrument vendors all try to differentiate to sell more instruments it never became a really standard.

Also because there were more IVI implementations that were not compatible it in fact failed.

 

So if you don't need it after implementing your own stuff, you will not miss it.


Unfortunately I cannot seem to find IVI read, write or query VIs, neither basic Labview ones (like for VISA) nor specific ones in the instrument drivers.

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@Minions wrote:

Just try this simple VI to query the Instrument ID if it is set for SCPI communications.

LV2016 VISAwrc.png

Enter into the write buffer ==> *IDN?

Select the correct VISA resource name for the desired Instrument

 

Run the VI and see the results in the read buffer output. 


I have used the VISA write function in combination with the IVI drivers for a while now and have not seen any issues with it so far. Keysight has also confirmed that the drivers doesn't come with simple read / write functions.

However, just for others out there I also realized that the Keysight drivers comes with a reference list which lists which VIs from the driver uses which SCPI commands which can also be quite handy. It is located under "Welcome -> Instrument Reference", see the screen shot below:

mc5000_0-1624539607010.png

 

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Hello, 

 

I have the same kind of Initialize with option VIs from the manufacturer.  Instrument driver is for Autowave. They also Call the Autowave.dll File. But I am having problem to find and open any of my instrument from resource name to sent to the node intrument handle. Any idea how to solve it.

 

Best regards

 

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Message 9 of 13
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Suggest the following before installing  the drivers for the DAQ970a from here:

 

https://www.keysight.com/in/en/lib/software-detail/driver/daq970-data-acquisition-system-ivi-driver-... 

 

Insure that .NET 3.5 is ON in Windows 10 under "Turn Windows Features ON/OFF":

 

NET35.jpg

 

Insure your IVI Compliance Package is up to date  in NI MAX

 

IVI compliance.PNG

 

Keysight DAQ970A should be auto detected in NI MAX under Network Devices "Auto Detect". No need to do a raw socket with a port number. VISA session should look like this TCPIP0::192.168.200.13::inst0::INSTR

 

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