Newbie Question: Do I need to write a driver?

[vienna]

I want to use LabView to read and control various devices. Their manuals specify respective 488.2 commands that can be used to control the instrument. I was assuming that you made this calls in LabView or C++ using the 488.2 commands. Im confused as to where the driver comes in this and the hierarchal process from LabView to the GPIB board. If someone could give me a quick example of an command call from LabView to device etc..

thanks.
P.

[Michael_N.]

Hi P.

If you are using an instrument driver for your instrument that is written in LabVIEW, then the instrument commands are being made for you in the LabVIEW code. This is one of the main advantages of using an instrument driver; you don't have to know the entire command set for the instrument. Instead, you should be able to simply interface with the Front Panel (ie. User Interface). I'm not sure what instruments you are using, but generally the Instrument Driver will allow you query or send commands to the instrument. You don't have to worry about the syntax of the commands themselves. If you look at the block diagram for your instrument driver, you should be able to go into the subVIs and eventually find the subVIs that actually contain the commands you wer
e expecting to have to type in yourself.

The general hierarchy of instrument control in LabVIEW is that you use the instrument driver to send commands to the instrument. Those LabVIEW commands are sent to the hardware driver (NI-488.2) on your computer, which in turn communicates with your GPIB board. Your GPIB board sends the command to the instrument.

You may find the following link helpful:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/119b3b705b84b041862567d90074f425?OpenDocument

Regards,

Mike N.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments