VISA Licensing in application development

[TestcellGuy]

Hi,

we are currently reworking legacy-applications which exclusively rely on GPIB and we are considering to use VISA

in the future within a common application (C#, Java, C++ ...). Regarding the licensing, i have the following questions:

a) Is it still possible to use VISA in conjunction with NI-hardware (GPIB-Card etc ..) without buying an extra license ?

From this thread it seems one could use VISA for "free" as long it is used to with NI-hardware

b) Assume a workstation is equipmed with another vendor's GPIB-Card. Is NI-VISA able to deal with a GPIB-Card which was not produced by NI ? If so, I suppose we would a need a license for each productive environment.

Regards,

TestcellGuy

[santo_13 · Accepted solution]

VISA drivers are not licensed, you can use it as long as it works with the hardware.

[TestcellGuy]

Thanks for the fast answer, that's an important point.

Is there a chance that NI-VISA works with non-NI GPIB-cards ?

Unfortunately there are already various cards used ...

Regards,

TestcellGuy

[santo_13]

I am not confident to say that, better to check with the GPIB card manufacturer, but I know Keithley and Prologix have their own drivers.

In any case, AFAIK none of the manufacturers licenses a basic driver which is essential to get their product working.

Edit: Do check their license terms, it may be free to use but not redistribute part of your application etc.,