Using LabVIEW to create a switch matrix using multiple Pickering 40-586 Switches

[pstestek]

Greetings,

I am hoping that someone can help shed some light on how to configure multiple Pickering 40-586 switches to work as one switch module within LabVIEW. What I am trying to accomplish is the following:

Our application requires the use of six Pickering 40-586 switch modules which are configured such that all measurement equipment is connected on the rows (ex. DMM is R1 and R2). All paths to be measured are connected on the columns. Each physical switch module is 32 columns. However, I need to make crossing physical modules transparent. For example, if I am connecting the DMM to the columns Module1:C32 and Module2:C1, this needs to look like I am connecting C32 and C33.

I am currently trying to use the Pickering VISA driver VIs.

I know that NI-Switch has a feature to initialize multiple cards at a time and group them into what appears to be one module. Has anyone done the same for Pickering switches? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[santo_13]

I recommend giving NI Switch Executive a try with the Pickering switches, here is how to do that https://www.pickeringtest.com/en-us/kb/software-topics/ivi-driver-information-downloads/setup-max-to...

https://www.ni.com/en/shop/electronic-test-instrumentation/switches/what-are-switches/what-is-ni-swi...

[pstestek]

Unfortunately, I'm not sure Switch Executive will help because the application will be deployed to a Linux RT target. I am hoping to get this done using LabVIEW.

[pstestek · Accepted solution]

For those curious, I managed to get something that should work for me by using a couple of maps. 

As an input, I am expecting an array of VISA references to each of the Pickering Switch modules. I then create two maps: one map that links a VISA reference to a column alias (what the user will input for the column they want to perform an action on) and one map that links a module specific column to a column alias. Together with the two maps, I can easily search for a user-facing column alias and find the specific switch module VISA reference and specific column to set on that module.

So, since I have six 32 column switches and I want them to all appear as one 192 column switch, the user can specify a column without having to know how many physical hardware modules are in the system.