Labview Beginner - Initializing instuments through GPIB

[mIKE78]

Hi ppl,

I am a first time labview user and I need to communicate with various instruments using GPIB through LABVIEW. What are the intial steps that I must follow?? That is, after connecting the GPIB cable. 

Thanks,

mIKE

[Dennis_Knutson]

Perhaps you should start with the Instrument Control Fundamentals. You'll also want to see if there are existing instrument drivers for what you are using. You can do a search from LabVIEW by going to Tools>Instrumentation>Find Instrument Drivers. There is also the main Instrument Driver Network page.

[mIKE78]

Thanks Dennis, I have now gone through the basics but have got a problem, its probably a stupid problem. I am currently using the GPIB-USB-B cable from NI and have downloaded the driver (NI 488.2). The problem is the PC still isn't detecting the driver, displaying the yellow exclamation mark on the device manager tab under the 'National Instruments GPIB Interfaces' and the message 'Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)'. I am not sure whether the driver I have installed is all that is required or if there are some other components that require installation.

Thank you, 

[Dennis_Knutson]

The NI-488.2 driver is all that is required. What version did you install? What OS are you using?

[mIKE78]

Ok, I tried installing the NI 488.2 driver on my laptop without installing labview (yet) and the cable is working fine. My PC on the other hand, after uninstalling Labview there seems to be some other National Instuments files 'caught up' in other folders. How can I remove all these NI related files without formatting my PC or going through each file manually?

Cheers 

[Mr.F]

Hi Mike,

Instead of trying to remove all NI software, could you uninstall the 488.2 driver and then reinstall. Rarely do you need to wipe your computer of all NI software. Can you install the 488.2 driver? 2.7.3 is the latest version and I would recommend that.

[JÞB]

As a GENERAL rule of thumb for system set-up

1. Install your development environment (e.g. LabVIEW and/or LabWindows\CVI)
2. Install addons or toolkits (  Report gen TK, App builder ect....)
3. Install TestStand (if you want it and have it)
4. Install NI-Device Drivers
5. Install additional NI-xxx licensed software (NI-RIO[ReconfigurableInputOutput], NI-FPGA[FieldProgrammableGateArray], NI-ONTWC$ [OhNoThisWillCost$] )
6. Install 3rd party software (PnP drivers from the developer zone ect..)
7. Install NI Hardware (PCI cards, USB devices, PXI cards ad nausium)
8. Install 3rd party hardware (all other vendors that aren't NI )

So, You NEED to install LabVIEW before Device Drivers (NI-488.2) so that NI-488.2 sees that it needs to copy the VI's and Examples for LabVIEW to the correct IDE folders

[patil441]

Sir,

can you tell me how to write a program for tempforce(temptronic) in that i have to control compressor, temperature, and head of the tempforce.

Thanks,

Pavan patil.