Dealing with USB communication using VISA

[aRCo]

Hello!!

I'm trying to develope my first VISA USB driver in order to let a WACOM tablet (mod. CTE-440) communicate with my Windows XP system.

To achieve this goal i'm referring to the following guides, which i found inside the forum:

USB Instrument Control and Getting started with USB communication via VISA.

After creating the INF file with the "VISA Driver Developement Wizard" (using default options and specifying the correct VID and PID numbers), copying the INF file into the c:\windows\inf directory and installing it, i plugged the device.

I expected to view in MAX, under "Devices and Interfaces", the entry "USB Devices" containing an entry similar to "USB0::...", but nothing.

What i noticed is that the operating system uses for the device the default Microsoft HID driver instead of the new one i created.

The problem is that if i try to update the driver in "Device Manager" specifying manually the inf file i created, the system returns the following error: "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware".

Clues on how to solve this annoying problem?

Message Edited by aRCo on 04-18-2010 09:57 AM

[sisu84]

Hi aRCo,

I think that you can use your Wacom table on MAX only if you set the correct driver on the Windows System manager.

Can you try to install your tablet on a different pc and tell me what driver does Windows use?

Ciao!

[Intaris]

This seems to be a problem with a lot of HIDs.  Microsoft always applies the HID driver instead of a non-signed custom driver.

While I was writing the nugget you referred to I did not have this problem and I still do not on my Win XP machine.

I have heard from numerous soruces that people are unable to install a custom VISA driver for HIDs.

I don't have anything to help with that at the moment.

Shane.

[aRCo]

Hi and thanks for your answers.

Mine is a known problem which is discussed in the following article:

Why is NI-VISA Unable to Control my USB Device?

I think that i have to focus my efforts on how to sign a VISA driver.

Any ideas?

[Intaris]

You won't be able to sign a VISA driver.

Both the INF file and the driver itself need to be included in the signing.

While it is theoretically possible ( send it off to MS for lots of bucks) it's pointless because even a minor change in the inf file will render it unsigned.

Shane.