Agilent Analyzer not seen by LabVIEW

[mindsclay]

I have a Agilent 8593E that is seen by "Measurement and Automation" (MAX) but another analyzer E4303 is not seen when searching for instruments. Is this a driver issue?

[Dennis_Knutson]

You mention LabVIEW in the topic for some reason but the issue is solely in MAX and no, it would have nothing to do with any driver.

First, verify that the instrument is correctly set up for the communication that you are using (GPIB?). Then, disconnect the other instrument and try it with just the E4303 connected. If it still does not work, swap cables. If you have another E4303, try that.

Since one instrument can be detected in MAX, I would presume that there is no problem with MAX or any NI hardware. Contact Agilent to see if they have a solution.

[mindsclay]

I already performed basic troubleshooting. It is not the cables. I have tried other analyzers and only the 4303 and 4307 units don't work, the other analyzers are seen. LabVIEW does not see any device because there is no VISA resource for it. IF MAX doesn't see it than LabVIEW won't either.

[Dennis_Knutson]

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@mindsclay wrote:

.... IF MAX doesn't see it than LabVIEW won't either.

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That is true so discussion of LabVIEW is irrelevant.

Verify that there is not an instrument setting to enable the GPIB. Since other instruments are detected, I don't see where there could be a problem with NI hardware or software. Somewhat unlikely, but in the properties of the GPIB controller, you can adjust the bus timing.

[mindsclay]

I do not see a MAX forum...

I am using GPIB-USB-HS.

I have contacted Agilent and they used MAX, the same USB-to-GPIB adaptor and the same analyzer, and they were able to see the instrument. All their support mentioned was the GPIB address, which in this case is 18. I have tried other addresses. There are no other settings.

I see an VISA error in MAX: 

0xBFFF009E (VI_ERROR_LIBRARY_NFOUND)

viOpenDefaultRM returned 0xBFFF009E (Error - A code library required by VISA could not be loaded)

I tried reloading NI-VISA software and that did not alleviate the issue.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Yes, that error typically means you do not have a correct VISA installation but that does not matter right now. When you do a scan for instruments, MAX does not use VISA. It uses low level GPIB functions and you can capture this with NI-Spy. Just like using LabVIEW, it does not make any sense to try to use VISA before your instrument is detected. Stay focused on the first task. You might want to turn on NI-Spy before doing a scan for instruments and attaching the Spy report.

p.s. Is the USB-GPIB from NI or Agilent?

[mindsclay]

The USB-to-GPIB is National Instruments.

Attached is the error I get when trying to capture with NI Spy.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You have a couple of references to what looks like Tek VISA on your desktop. Do you have that installed? If so, why?

You can disable VISA in NI-Spy.

[NIquist]

The Tektronix VISA is a subset of NI-VISA and will cause problems since its installer overwrites visa32.dll leaving you without many required functions (INCLUDING MAX!).  NI VISA has always worked for my Tektronix applications so I make sure never to install Tek VISA (if the installer even asks).  You can probably get away with overwriting the visa32.dll in you systems folder, or just reinstall NI-VISA completely.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/E3B8CA02F49572A386256C1100007424 

[mindsclay]

The previous test engineer had those installed. I removed them, and tried to reinstall NI-VISA to see if the visa32.dll would be installed, and it didn't.

Attached is the capture from NI Spy.