New NI GPIB-USB-HS on legacy Apple systems

[3TMQ]

Hi Folks
Does any one know if new NI GPIB-USB-HS units still work as replacements in Apple OS X legacy test systems, or has there been a firmware change in the USB interface to the kext?
I have just bought a spare unit as a replacement, and it fails to work on my existing Apple NI 488.2 installs (V18.5 on OS X 10.13, OS X 10.11, V2.5.5 on OS X 10.5 intel). Borrowed unit for troubleshooting works fine. In NI Max, the new "faulty" unit reports as "GPIB-USB-HS" (note missing preceding "NI ") in the left hand panel, and missing configuration panels on right hand side.

Faulty new unit:-

PART NO: 187965J-01L
SERIAL NO: 201764C

Good trouble shooting unit:-

PART NO: 187965G-01L
SERIAL NO: 152CE23

Note the final character "J" vs "G" difference. Do "J" units not work on Apple Mac OS X?

NI Max results:-

Faulty unit on left, trouble shooting functional unit on right

My only need from these units is scripting with IBIC (which has always worked quite well) 🙂

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks
Michael

[rolfk]

Where did you buy it? There seem to have been counterfeit devices on the market and NI added measures in their driver to detect that and simply cause an error. The missing NI might be an indication but I'm not sure. Using NI in a counterfeit product might open the manufacturer to extra legal liability for brand name abuse and similar.

The G versus J difference is for legit modules simply a revision change. NI adds an incrementing letter to each part number. Every time they make any modification to the device, this letter is incremented. Modifications can be engineering improvements such as PCB changes to make a device less suspectable to electrical interference or failing, changes of components used on the board either for technical reason, market availability or EOL of a component. It could also be a mechanical modification or even things as changing the housing color as part of their rebranding.

[3TMQ]

Thank you Rolf for your helpful reply.

That was my guess about the "G" / "J" differences (mostly minor, and legit), but I have been unable to find any authoritative information on the NI website describing the "PART NO:" changes.  I was wanting to confirm "J" did not cause a backwards compatibility issue with old Apple Mac kexts for the USB comms, which I am pretty sure it would not - but you never know.

Unit was purchased from China, pretty much from where a search landed me avoiding anything that looked overtly unreliable, as I had to return a borrowed unit (and had a couple of old machines, with old software which always just worked - plug & play).

So I guess it's a poor copy.  I see now, that even buying on Ebay does not solve this problem.  I guess no one now tests their hardware on Apple, eh?  Makes the unit pretty much junk for me.

Many thanks

Michael

[rolfk]

---

@3TMQ wrote:

Unit was purchased from China, pretty much from where a search landed me avoiding anything that looked overtly unreliable, as I had to return a borrowed unit (and had a couple of old machines, with old software which always just worked - plug & play).

So I guess it's a poor copy.  I see now, that even buying on Ebay does not solve this problem.  I guess no one now tests their hardware on Apple, eh?  Makes the unit pretty much junk for me.

---

It's unlikely an Apple thing specifically. Newer drivers know how to test for counterfeit products and simply won't install a driver object for it, failing its use. What might be specifically an Apple problem in this context is the fact that you almost for sure do have to use a driver that was released AFTER the according MacOS running on your system was released. Apple is notorious to change things in the device driver system so that older drivers regularly fail to install or load in newer systems. Under Windows you often get away using older device drivers even in newer systems, so that you might have a chance to circumvent the counterfeit product detection in newer driver versions.

[3TMQ]

Hi Rolf,

Thank you again for your thoughts on this.  I think this is a helpful thread as I've not found anything else exactly like it, so it might help others.  I have given up on this unit (187965J-01L # 201764C), & will give it to a friend who uses Windows.  I have noted reports that recent NI software recognizes counterfeit units and reports this to the user, but then very kindly continues as best it can - NI are good people, I reckon.

I am sure I am using correct driver versions for the OS versions, as I have not had troubles in the past with the borrowed unit.  The faulty unit failure is in effect a complete failure to recognize the device as a GPIB-USB-HS, I guess by the kext.  I have downloaded & archived quite a stack of NI drivers, because you never know when you need to install on 10.6 or something.  NI make it pretty clear what version you should go for, and as you suggest, if you get it wrong it won't install or work at all.

I guess #201764C is a poor copy with minor differences in the USB protocol that just happen to work under windows.  It might be as simple as a minor difference in the libraries used to compile the NI drivers under the different platforms, perhaps like being a little less case sensitive, or perhaps a newline behaviour.  Hence such a minor difference with this faulty unit causes it to not be recognized under Mac OS X.

I have purchased a third unit (used), and it works just fine on all systems (10.5 .. 10.13), like the borrowed unit.

Third purchased good unit:-

PART NO: 187965G-01L
SERIAL NO: 1577DE7

AliExpress have been unhelpful in providing a refund in this case.  Their system seems to me to not understand the evidence I presented ☹️   I provided screen shots, like above, photos of setup, and after that, a video demonstration - all claims failed without them being specific on what they exactly required of me to complete the faulty unit proof.

[rolfk]

One way to verify if it is an NI hardware or some knockoff is to check the inside. But that requires opening the device. The NI hardware uses their own TNT4882-C or followup version TNT500C or compatible chip and some external integrated circuits. The knockoff contains a single chip without any other logic whatsover with some marking that is clearly not from NI.

I recently talked with John Wu from Extend Test who specializes in sourcing hard to get or obsoleted NI hardware and he told me that he initially had to write off quite a junk of money from devices he bought that turned out to be non-genuine NI knockoff hardware.