Using & configuring IVI driver for Agilent E4407B

[Shaz_man]

Need some help on using IVI driver. I have never Used a IVI driver before.

I have Agilent E4407B ESA Spectrum Analyzer that I need to talk to. The only drivers available are IVI driver. I have looked up how to use the IVI driver but they are not working for me.

I am using Labview 7.1.1.

I have install the compliance package 2.2 and Install the agesa_7.1 IVI drivers need.
I have setup Max as the example tell you to do. I have g given it logicalname and the hardware setting and virtual instrument setting.

When in labview I initialize the instrument there is communication with the instrument but the IVI drive returns an ERROR.

agesa Initialize With Options.viDriver Status: (Hex 0xBFFF0015) Primary Error: (Hex 0xBFFF0015) Timeout expired before operation completed.

I have try number of thing but still not working for me.

So any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[craigherdman]

Shaz_man,

You are likely to see this error if one or more of your inputs are incorrect. Have you tried one of the stand-alone application examples? Can you run those without error?

Craig H.
NI Applications Engineering

[Shaz_man]

Hi Craig.H

The only drivers available are IVI, Intulink and VXI.
All I am trying to do is initialize the instrument and there isn't much I can set wrong in the VI but I am thinking if the setup in Max isn't right then I will not be able to talk to the instrument.

So now I tried the Agilent driver IVICOM and they are not working too but I am getting different error.

After all that I contacted Agilent and they told me to down load VXI drive. Also they sent me a pdf file on how to convert the VXI drive to VI's.

I got it working but I would like to know what I am doing wrong with IVI drivers. It would be good to know how to get IVI drivers workings for future reference.

Thank you for your help.

Shazam

[gagi1]

Hello Shazam,

You have to configure an IVI specific driver in MAX only if your application is written using an IVI class driver. However, if you would like just to run an example that ships with the driver, you should use a VISA resource name instead of logical name in the Initialize VI. You can learn more about IVI on ni.com/ivi. You can find specific tutorials about IVI configuration on Developer Zone Resource Pages.

There is a readme file that ships with the agesa driver. Please refer to this readme file for the information about what is supported with this driver. Also, if you still have problems initializing and using the driver, please contact us at instrument.drivers@ni.com and send us the NI-Spy log.

Regards,

Vesna Jadric
Instrument Drivers/IVI

[BBend]

I have just installed the same IVI driver for Agilent E4407B and have the same problem as Shaz_man. I ran NI-Spy and it times out on a ViRead appearantly because the *IDN? command isn't terminated with \r\n. Sending the same command with the \r\n manually gived correct response. Running other examples it looks like the driver doesn't terminate other commands as well. I find it hard to believe this is something the developers of this driver hasn't sorted out, but I have no solution to the problem since I cant add the \r\n into the driver myself. Firstly: I'm I right in my asumtion about the need to terminate all commands with \r\n? And second: Is this a (huge) error in the driver, or can it be corrected in the "settings"? I appreciate any help on this issue and can supply NI-Spy log if requested

Regards
Bård Bendiksen

[gagi1]

Hello Bård,

The driver that is available on our web site supports only the GPIB interface. It has not been tested with the Serial interface. You are correct - the termination should be added in the Initialize function. There are a few options:

1. Since we ship the C source code with all our drivers, you can modify the code yourself. You can use another IVI certified driver that supports Serial interface as an example.
2. Unfortunately we do not have access to the instrument at this time. If you can provide us with the instrument, we can make the updates and fully test the driver.
3. You can submit the driver request for the Serial interface (http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/niid_web_display.request_driver). We have already requested an instrument loan from Agilent but we are waiting on it for over a year now.

Best Regards,

Vesna Jadric
Instrument Drivers/IVI