WA-1000 WXFO Burleigh produces Error 6 in the middle of experiment. After reset works ok for a while . Then again Error 6 ......

[TeaAndBiscuits]

EXFO Burleigh WA-1000 waveleter responds correctly for a few to few hunderd measurments correctly (via GPIB Read command).

Suddenly then pops up an error saying

"Error 6 occurred at GPIB...Possible Reasons: LabVIEW : Generic File IO Error NI-488: IO operation aborted" ...on GPIB Read

Then I reset WA-1000, without quitting the program. And then press "continue" on the attached error, it runs OK for next few minutes.

Then again the error pops up.

( This instument an OLD style one, never responds to VISA commands. And is used in broadcast mode, wherein each reading is transmitted automatically to the port)

sandeepvd@yahoo.com

[Dennis_Knutson]

Attaching an image of an error code you already provided doesn't really help much. If you are sure the error is being generated by the GPIB Read, then this error typically happens when you have poor or no dataflow in your program and you have aborted one GPIB operation by starting another before the first is finished. For example, during the read you might have a parallel write. If you have not connected the error clusters to enforce dataflow, connect them. If you have local variables, remove them as well. Posting the VI you've written and any subVIs will help to determine the exact cause of the problem.

[TeaAndBiscuits]

Thank you.

Attached is the VI.

- As the instrument is in the broadcast mode, only GPIB Read is present. There is no Write.

- This is a SubVI in the dataflow. Parent VIs have been connected via..ErrorIN...Error Out.

- Error occurs with running this VI only. Parent VI (or any other VI) need not be run.

-Error comes out of GPIB Read.

[Dennis_Knutson]

What the heck is broadcast mode? I've never heard of a GPIB instrument doing a continuous broadcast. I don't think that is legitimate for GPIB communications. Is there a mode that you can put it in so that you only get a response when commanded? Why is it necessary to have the GPIB Read in a loop? Are you only getting a partial read of data when you request the 100 bytes? If so, you should be able to specify some really large number and the GPIB Read will terminate at EOI or the LF you specified.

[TeaAndBiscuits]

As attached , broadcast mode is one in which this instrument is supposed to keep transmitting data to the port.

We have tried in both "boradcast" and "query" mode.

While loop is used to try multiple times, because this instrument occassionally returns '0' instead of  correct wavelenth value.

Read buffer size is just a variable which has not mattered so far (100 bytes has been good enough for response)

Trouble is it just stops communicating after few (to hundreds) iterations. And 'GPIB read' produces the error 6, which being system error, just waits indefinately till someone clicks continue or stops.

Without quiting the program, if I reset this equipment, everything is OK (for a while again)

[Dennis_Knutson]

Error 6 pops up a dialog because you probably have automatic error handling on and because you don't have the error in/out wired in this VI. You could automatically handle the error and continue.

The instrument seems to be old and not compliant to any GPIB standard. It seems it also supports RS-232. You could move it to a serial port and use the VISA Bytes at Serial port to determine whether or not to do a VISA Read.

[lmtis]

Hi Sandeep,

I would have replied earlier, but I didn't realize the 1100 & 1500 use the same communication protocol.  This is a VI that I used a while back to read from ours.  Hope it helps.