Using GPIB to connect third party devices

[RedAG]

Hi folks,

I am using a SCb-68 and a PXI-1033 to connect a circuit tester/smart printer to the PC.

Now, I am restarting the work done by someone else, about 4 years ago, so I havn't figured out much yet, and it doesn't help that I am a relative beginer in LabVIEW.

As I understand things, a circuit tester/smart printer is connected to a SCB 68, through a non-inverting octal buffer circuit. The SCB 69 is then connected to the PXI-1033 (NI PXI 7813R) in the front panel. The PXI is then connected through its interneal MXi card to the PCI slot in my PC.

When I open up MAX, the PXI (detected as RIO 0 as the SCB is connected to connector 0 I assume) shows up along with the PXI chassis. Or am I reading this wrong?

But, the Serial & Parellel port for connection to the SCB 68, cannot be connected. It has a small yellow circle with a question mark. The error message states that :

'MAX could not open a VISA session to this static device. The device was not returned from VISA when finding resources, but MAX was able to use VISA to parse the resource name' 

When I trouble shoot, the message that shows up is that there are missing functionalities. But as far as I can see (the other guy left pictures of his connection), there are non.

When I attended a NI seminar, I managed to corner one of the NI engineers, who mentioned using GPIB instead of serial port. But when I tried configuring a GPIB port, the same error shows up!

Any help would be much appreciated. 

Thanks, Anoop

[Dennis_Knutson]

I simply don't understand what you are trying to do. The SCB-68 is a dumb terminal block and the 1033 is a chassis. The SCB-68 would be connected to the 7831R as you say but there would normally be no connection from your pc's serial port (if you even have one) to the SCB-68. If MAX cannot find a serial port, then typically that means your pc does not have one. A GPIB controller in the pc would be used to connect to an instrument with a GPIB interface and not to the SCB-68 either. If you don't have a controller installed in the pc (pci or USB), then of course you could not configure that either.

None of this has anything to do with LabVIEW. You need to understand the hardware of this tester of yours.

[RedAG]

Hi, thanks for the reply and sorry for the confussion.

What I meant was, the PXI chassis is connected to the PCI slot in my PC (which I believe is achieved through the MXI cable and card). I have tested the connection and communication through the MAX (which detects the Chassis and a RIO) and the 'Link' led glows green, and when I run a sample program, the 'Link' led alternates between green and red, which means activity in the PCI I believe?

Now, the SCB 68 (which is made use of to connect a circuit developed by another person), is connected to the PXI backplane. In essence, I am trying to read the signals coming from the circuit throught the SCB and the PXI. Does that make sense? I have posted a picture of the hardware to give you an idea about the physical hardware connection.

However, there is no communication from the circuit so far, or I have been unable to acquire signals from the circuit.

I mentioned LabVIEW as the program for acquring the signals from the circuit have already been made, this is the program I want to use to acquire the signals.

[Dennis_Knutson]

That picture is absolutely worthless. If you don't have an actual schematic, then you need to create one as soon as possible. Nothing in this last post explains why you need a serial port or GPIB

The 7831 is an FPGA that must be programmed before you can capture anything. Unfortunately, I cannot help with the programming. I also don't know how you are verifying communication.

[crossrulz]

As previously said, the SCB68 is a connector block.  It is not tied to the PXI backplane.  It is a simple way to wire stuff to the PXI card, in this case a RIO card.  That card needs to be programed with LV FPGA, which is a whole another beast.

[crossrulz]

Ok, let's keep the conversation in 1 thread:http://forums.ni.com/t5/PXI/Reading-data-through-PXI-for-labVIEW/m-p/2298822#U2298822

[RedAG]

I assumed that GPIB or a serial communication channel would be required for communication to the circuit I mentioned?

The prgramming for the FPGA (7813R) has already been performed and its with me. 

I will get on that schematic asap.

Thanks for your help!

[Dennis_Knutson]

I don't understand your assumption. You need to understand this custom circuit - what it supposed to do, what it is supposed to connect to, etc. Serial or GPIB would require some pretty specific parts as an interface.

[RedAG]

The custom circuit is a series of non-inverting octal buffers. When I mean a series, there are actually 3 IC's. They take in data from a smart printer and out put it to the SCB 68. 

[Dennis_Knutson]

You still have not provided any reason to use serial or GPIB so perhaps we should just close out this thread.