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acqiris digitizer

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I'm trying to create an oscilliscope-style interface for an old Acqiris digitizer (DC240). Since it's an old MXI-3 system, the only way I could connect it is by daisy-chaining the Acqiris compact PCI Crate (cc108) with MXI-3 controller (XC100) to a PXI-8335 with MXI-3 connection in an NI PXI system run by an embedded controller (PXI-8104 running Windows XP). Because this crate is not NI (and doesn't have a chassis.ini file anywhere that I can find in its driver, program files, etc.), MAX does not recognize the chassis, and just displays it as an "unidentified chassis", and therefore will not display the digitizer itself as a device. The digitizer is definitely connected, though, because in a non-LabView software program which came with the digitizer, it does function properly.

With this hardware setup, I'm trying to run some pre-made LabView VI's which initialize the digitizers, but they crash and/or can't find the digitizer. The initialize function is supposed to return an "intrsumentID" int, but just displays an error message. Would it be possible to write my own initialize VI that finds the digitizer and returns this ID? I wish I could describe in more detail what the pre-made initialize funciton does, but it just uses a "call library function node" to call a DLL file which I can't access.

I do know the serial number, hardware ID, and PCI bus/slot of the digitizer, but entering this information into the pre-made VI (it can supposedly read either the PCI info or the serial number as a string in order to locate the digitizer) does not work. Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.


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Hello cbrooks8593,

 

Your best bet is to look up the VISA command set for your device and use LabVIEW's VISA VIs to control the device. I can't find a driver for the digitizer or chassis you listed so I wouldn't expect it to show up in MAX correctly. When you say you're using a pre-made VI do you mean you're using an example from LabVIEW or code that someone else wrote?

Jonathan L.
Technical Support Senior Group Manager
National Instruments
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Hi Jonathan,

 

Thanks very much for the help. I couldn't find any drivers either, I think it's because the digitizer was discontinued some time around 2002, so I'll look into the LabView VISA VI's. The pre-made VIs I mentioned are essentially code that someone else wrote; there was a software package compatible with the digitizer that I was able to download, and this package included a LabView library containing the VIs which I imported and attempted to use.

Thanks again!

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I'm having trouble accessing the chassis/digitizers even using the VISA VI's. So far every one I've been able to find either calls or requires a VISA resource name, which I don't have since MAX doesn't recognize the devices. Is there a way to create a VISA resource name from the hardware ID or from the physical PCI card/bus information? If I can do that I've found one of the pre-made VI's which came with my software package which should initialize the device when given the VISA resource name.

Thanks!

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Out of curiosity, can you plug the Acquiris digitizer directly into your NI PXI rack instead of plugging it into the Acquiris rack? The only difference between compact PCI and PXI were the RTSI lines added for PXI (PCI with eXtensions for Instrumentation). If I remember correctly, you should be able to plug it in. Be careful, so if there is an incompatibility you do not bend a pin.

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Solution
Accepted by topic author cbrooks8593

I was acutally able to get it up and running using the NI-VISA Driver Wizard! I was having trouble with this at first because I couldn't find any of the necessary information in my instrument's documentation, but it was all contained in the Device Instance ID in the Device Manager, as I found here: http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=2039700&nid=-11143.0.00&id=2039....

I thought about trying to connect directly as you suggested but I believe my digitizer cards are double the height of my NI PXI chassis, so I could connect the PXI cards into my Acqiris crate but not vice versa.

Thanks for the help! The VISA suggestion definitely pointed me in the right direction.

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Hello, I am wondering that the setting in the NI-VISA Driver Wizard. I follow the step you gave to find the vendor ID and device ID and also follow this website http://www.ni.com/tutorial/4713/en/ to use the NI-VISA Driver Wizard. After following all steps, my Ni MAX shows the visa error 0xBFFF003A (VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP), and the description of error is 

viFindRsrc returned 0xBFFF003A (Unable to start operation because setup is invalid (due to attributes being set to an inconsistent state).)

Please make sure VISA is properly installed on this system.

Possible causes for this error:
1. More than one Passport may be attempting to claim the same resource. You can try disabling Passports to figure out which Passport is causing the error.
2. You have connected multiple unconfigured plug-and-play devices that have the same resource name. For example, the vendor ID and serial number may be the same.

 

My question is that does the step provided by the website is same as yours?

Thanks!

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Hi kylelove2902,

 

I have a few steps for you to try:

1) Disable all Passports except the one you need for your device. (Tools » NI-VISA » VISA Options... Once the VISA Options screen appears, Select Passports in the tree view (My System » VISA Settings » Passports)

2) Make sure you don't have multiple plug-and-play devices with the same name.

3) Reinstall the latest version of NI-VISA.

 

Best,

Lindsey Nestor
Program Manager, Hardware Services
National Instruments
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