Why isn't NI IO Trace not showing all captured events (Bug in NI IO Trace??)

[joro]

Hello,

I received a NI-SPY file from a customer, which I opened in NI IO Trace (3.0.1). This NI-SPY file contains only information regarding the GPIB communication from a PC to multiple GPIB devices.

The customer is referring to line number 3678 in the NI-SPY file, but in NI IO Trace, only 790 lines are captured. (See the attached screenshot: 'niiotrace3_0_1')

Also the captured information is strange because it is only showing 'ibnotify callbacks'. I also expected to see other 'ibwrt' and 'ibrd' calls in the NI-SPY file.

I then opened the same NI-SPY file in a very old version of NI-SPY (2.5). That NI-SPY program shows that 3697 lines are captured. Also now all the 'ibwrt' and 'ibrd' calls are shown.

See the attached screenshot: 'nispy2_5_0'. Both the screenshots show the same part of the capture (line 1 in the 3.0.1 version is the same as line 171 in the 2.5 version).

I also checked the NI-SPY file with a 2.7.2 version of NI-SPY and that also shows only 790 captured lines.

For completeness I also attached the related NI-SPY itself.

The current questions I have are:

- Why aren't all the captured lines shown in NI IO Trace 3.0.1?

- How can I detect that an opened NI-SPY file is only showing a part of the complete NI-SPY file? (I would expect that NI IO Trace would show a warning if it can't show all the captured data).

- Is there something changed between version 2.5 and version 2.7.2 of NI-SPY that prevents that all captured information is shown?

- What should I do to show all the captured content of a NI-SPY file in NI IO Trace 3.0.1?

If you need additional information, please ask.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

John

[Hossein128]

Hi,

I tried that file with NI IO Trace 3.0 too and I got the same number of lines as you (790). From version 3.0 the NI Spy is changed to NI IO Trace and I think that some algorithms are changed but NI IO Trace can open all spy files as his previous version too. 

The reason of this issue is not clear to me and I think that you can try to open another spy file to see if this issue will happen again or not.

Let me know what the result would be.

Thanks and best regards,

Hossein

[joro]

Hello Hossein,

Thanks for confirming that NI IO Trace 3.0 on your PC is also showing a partial NI-SPY file.

I already detected that NI-SPY 2.7.2 also has the same problem. I believe that something has changed between version 2.5 and 2.7.2 of NI-SPY that prevents that all the information of the NI-SPY file is shown.

Do you know of a solution or workaround to show all the information of the NI-SPY file in IO Trace 3.0?

Thanks in advance,

John

[Hossein128]

Hi,

Sorry for my delay. I found out that it is a bug but I couldn't find any other .spy file to check this bug. If you have any other .spy file in the old version which I can use it for our support it could be great.

Otherwise I have to escalate it to our support in US.

Thanks and hear it from you.

Hossein

[joro]

Hello Hossein,

Thanks for your response. You're asking if I have some other examples? I do!

I remembered to have seen some other NI-SPY files with strange contents. I checked them again, and attached them to this post.

The 'Agilent8753ES.spy' file shows 400 lines in the 2.5 version of NI-SPY

In the 3.0.1 version it doesn't show anything, but it believes to have captured a single line. (as it is shown in the statusbar on the bottom-right).

The 'zvkCapture.spy' file shows 532 lines in the 2.5 version of NI-SPY

In the 3.0.1 version it only shows 130 lines of the 130 captures lines. (it again only shows the lines that are captured within the ibnotify callback.)

I hope that this gives you enough information to find and solve the bug.

With best regards and thanks in advance,

John

[Hossein128]

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. I think that is a bug and now I can make a CAR (Corrective Action Request) to find a solution. I don't think that they are able to solve that very soon. That is why I hope that you can accept that problem and install a new version of I/O Trace and make a .trace file instead of .spy file till they have the answer.

I will close this forum till I have a feedback from our support. Then I will inform you.

Regards,

Hossein

[Hossein128]

Hi John,

I got an answer from our support in US. Indeed they remove this option in the new version of NI-SPY and if you need to have a look at the intern lines of the old .Spy file, then you need to send it to the NI support and they will open it for you and send it back  to you.

The reason is that they want to prevent the unnecessary change to the .spy file if there is not enough knowledge about it.

I hope that you are informed about it and if you have any question don't hesitate to ask.

Regards,

Hossein

[joro]

Hello Hossein,

Thanks for keeping me updated. I do have some additional questions now:

1)

You wrote: Indeed they remove this option in the new version of NI-SPY

Which 'option' are you referring to? It is unclear to me at this moment which 'option' has been removed between the old version of NI-SPY and the new version of NI-TRACE.

2)

If I want NI Support to open and convert an old NI-SPY file, to which e-mail address should I send the file to?

3)

It is not a problem for me to send an old NI-SPY file to NI Support to convert it to a newer NI-TRACE file. However, how do I know that an older NI-SPY file is not correctly shown in NI-TRACE (and should be converted by NI Support)?

Is there a possibility that NI-TRACE gives a warning that the file cannot be correctly read?

Thanks in advance, and with best regards,

John

[Hossein128]

Hi John,

1-

The option what I mentioned in my last email is the option that you can Enable Lower-level VISA and GPIB Call Viewing in NI-Spy. This is not possible anymore.

2-

If you want to open a Spy file and contact us, you can check if you have a service contract with National Instruments or not. If yes you can send an email to our support with your email address and login code. If No, then you can go to www.ni.com/support to get an SSP service. 

3-

In the new version of NI-Spy, (IO Trace) you cannot see Low-level VISA and GPIB Call lines for sure. But you don't get any error or something  like that. 

No. That is not possible.

But the easiest way is to install the old version of NI Spy and use it for the old file's if you really want to see all lines.

I hope that you get your answer.

Regards,

Hossein

[JasonSmith]

Actually it looks to me like the first call in the SPY file is corrupted, and it claims to have never returned. This causes it to appear that all of the calls from that thread are nested within the first call. Nested calls are not displayed in NI-Spy, so that is why I/O Trace is not showing any remaning calls from that thread. It could actually be considered a bug that NI-Spy 2.5 displayed the file correctly, since it ignored that the calls should have appeared nested.

I think that the behavior of I/O Trace is actually correct, and it is the spy file corruption which is the cause of the problem.

To help understand the problem more fully, the following information would help:

1. Which version of NI-488.2 is installed on the machine which generate the SPY file?

2. Which version of NI-488.2 is installed on the machine which NI-Spy 2.5?

3. Which version of NI-488.2 is installed on the machine with I/O Trace?

Thanks,

Jason Smith