NI MAX doesn't show IDs for some devices

[instrumento]

I have a few instruments,  Newport ESP300 controllers, that don't show their IDNs in the left pane of MAX, under the GPIB bus listing, but selecting the device, the Identification is there in the Settings panel (see attached image).

Refreshing, scanning for instruments, doesn't update it either.  This is mildly annoying.  Is there a fix for it?

[Dafrizzy]

Have you tried resetting your NI MAX database? If the MAX database has somehow become corrupt or modified in an unusual way, it could cause unexpected behavior such as this.

"What Is the Process For Resetting the MAX Database?": https://knowledge.ni.com/KnowledgeArticleDetails?id=kA00Z000000P8awSAC

[instrumento]

---

Have you tried resetting your NI MAX database?

---

Machine was idle, so I did it just to confirm something I was pretty sure about.  The MAX database has nothing to do with it.

Start NI MAX, select a GP-IB  bus.  Start NI I/O Trace and run it.  Then click on NI MAX's  "Scan for instruments".

Checking the trace, the code sends a "*IDN?" to all available addresses, gets the IDN string for those instruments that reply to it.

In my case I have two ESP 300 controllers at addresses 1 and 2, they both reply with a proper ID string, which NI MAX displays in Settings, if I selects that instrument, but not in the list under My System, on the left.

This means that I need to click on all the ones that don't have an ID string to find out where the ones I care about, and that reply to *IDN, happen to be.

[Dafrizzy]

Well I wish I had better news but I researched old service requests and escalated to a colleague who has researched the same issue before and unfortunately there is no way to manually or programmatically change the model name of the instrument if it does not return it itself. You can always edit the appearance name which will change the displayed VISA Resource Name as a workaround though.

[instrumento]

---

unfortunately there is no way to manually or programmatically change the model name of the instrument if it does not return it itself.

---

But, the instrument DOES return it!  Look at my previous reply, I can see the instrument reply with NI I/O trace.

[Dafrizzy]

Apologies if I was unclear in my last post. From the image you provided, it appears that the instrument returns the model name in the Identification property but the actual Model property is still listed as Instrument 0. The Model property is what is used for the display name in NI MAX regardless of what the Identification property returns. Unfortunately, there is no way at this time to manually set the Model property or link the Model property to the Identification property so that it can return the correct model name.

[instrumento]

---

The Model property is what is used for the display name in NI MAX regardless of what the Identification property returns.

---

With the Model property being some comma delimited section of the IDN string?

I guess I miss the Connected Instruments sub-tab of the GPIB Bus property window, where all the instruments were listed with their IDNs (see attached).   Seems this useful tab is gone. (Even though it mysteriously kept shrinking in size when it used to show all our instruments, sometimes approaching 14 per bus.)

[Dafrizzy]

I'm not sure if the Model property is derived from the IDN string. I can definitely see how the Connected Instruments tab would be useful in this case though. Feel free to post it on NI's Idea Exchange as a recommended feature to bring back in future releases!

"Idea Exchange": https://forums.ni.com/t5/Idea-Exchange/ct-p/ideas

[instrumento]

---

@DafrizzyI'm not sure if the Model property is derived from the IDN string.

Has to be, as, if you trace what NI-MAX is doing, it only requests IDN from each device it can connect to.  If the string doesn't follow the standard HP's (Agilent/Keysight) format of four comma separated fields, NI-MAX can't make up one from the IDN (but maybe it could).

---

@DafrizzyI can definitely see how the Connected Instruments tab would be useful in this case though.

---

So can I.  Go back 10 years (probably) to NI-MAX 3.xx, and that tab was much larger (vertically) and contained all the instruments in the system. Starting (probably) with NI-MAX 4.xx, it was shrunk down to a scrolled window showing you 3 (or 4?) instruments, not good enough for some systems where I have 10+ instruments in two buses.

The shrinking down of that tab and posterior elimination of the same, makes me think that someone in NI-MAX's group doesn't think it is useful.

---

@Dafrizzy Feel free to post it on NI's Idea Exchange as a recommended feature to bring back in future releases!

---

I did complain about the shrinking tab either on this forum, or in a support ticket, and was told that the "idea" would be sent to R&D for consideration, with obviously not very good results, so I'm not going to waste my time with that battle.

[Dafrizzy]

So as you said, if the instrument does not provide the standard format of an IDN response, NI MAX will apparently not be able to parse it because it has no way to properly determine what the model name is. There is no way to manually tell NI MAX how to parse this response at this time. 

Again, the best way to provide feedback and suggestions for future releases is through the idea exchange as that is actually where R&D looks for customers' needs so I would recommend posting there.

Feel free to direct message me your service request number related to this issue though and I can take a look at it as well.