I'm having issues using labview to conduct a voltage sweep on the keithley 2400.

[akam520]

I'm trying to pass sweeping voltage through a diode, and measure the resulting current in order to ensure its iv characterisitcs. I downloaded the instrument driver for the keitley, and then used the example sweep and acquire measurements vi, but i kep getting the following errors: 

Instrument reports:
-113,"Undefined header"
-230,"Data corrupt or stale"
-420,"Query UNTERMINATED"
0,"No error"

Complete call chain:
Keithley 24XX.lvlib:Error Query.vi
Keithley 24XX.lvlib:Read (Multiple Points).vi
Keithley 24XX Output List and Acquire.vi

Help!! thanks!

[Emily-C]

Hi akam520,

The 2400 Series SourceMeter User's Manual has more information on these errors. Please see page B-8: 

http://research.physics.illinois.edu/bezryadin/labprotocol/Keithley2400Manual.pdf

Error -113 "Undefined header" occurs when the command you sent to the instrument did not contain a recognizable command name. It's likely the syntax of one of your commands is wrong. It's possible that this command being incorrect is also propagating to cause the other errors you're seeing.

Can you try stepping through your application to see when the error gets  thrown? If you can narrow down which call is throwing the error, it will be easier to compare this command against the user manual to ensure that you have the correct syntax.

I hope this helps!

[Jason_S]

My condolences on your choice of instrument. I've used that source meter extensively and, while it always worked, it never seemed to work well. Programming it was death by a 1000 cuts.

In any case, which driver are you using? When I used it I found that the old LabVIEW driver (which no longer appears to be on the website) was the best driver. I had moderate luck with the VISA driver as well. I see NI has a "new" driver dated 2010 with which I'm not familiar.

Regardless, I often I found that the best practice was to use the LabVIEW driver where it worked, and simply go straight to straight VISA calls where it didn't. Get the manual for the 2400 and look to the command interface section.

Best of luck,

Jason