VISA lecroy 8901 read?

[gurra]

I have a Camac crate with a lecroy 8901 controller. I wish to read from a counter (kinetic systems 3640) mounted in the crate. I have downloaded the lecroy 8901a VISA driver package but I cant interperet the output of the VISA single read. What is exactly coming out of the LC8901A Read.vi, it sure cant be the number of counts on the counter. Does anybody know what the output at the Data terminal is?

[alanjb]

Alan from LeCroy Tech Support here... Make sure that you first setup the mode using Lc8901A Mode.vi, and that you are using the correct F/A/N, of course. I'm not sure if the 8901 is 100% compatible with the 8901A driver. Are you able to readout data from other modules? This driver has been around for many many years, so I would expect it to function properly. Best Regards, Alan

[gurra]

I dont have any other modules to read out from. I have a 3601 IGOR module from Kinematic systems that im able to write to.

I set the mode in Lc8901A open.vi and I only get anything when i choose Single transfer, should I also use the mode.vi? I'm pretty sure about the F/A/N setting cause they are the same as in a old labview GPIB driver that works but I want to use VISA now cause it supposedly to be simplier. Is there some way to know what is coming out of the Data terminal? I would expect it would be the number of counts because the F I use is desribed as "Reads counter, then clears counter" but is the data in some form that has to be converted to display the number of counts?

Thanks for your quick reply, Erik

[alanjb]

I hadn't spotted that the Open Vi called Mode.  That should definitely be sufficient for setting up the 8901A's mode.  I would expect that single mode, 24 bit would be the one to use. 

The 8901A simply returns 3 bytes corresponding to the 24 bits of data on the CAMAC dataway.  You might want to contact Kinetic Systems for support as well.  the 3640 is still an active product for them. 

Best Regards,

Alan