driver for 70842A

[2605]

Hi,

I am looking for driver for 80841B,80842B,8780A,83480A and 8350B, is there anyone who has these drivers? Thanks for sharing them with me . thanks alot

[Dennis_Knutson]

A search of the Instrument Driver Network didn't turn up anything with those numbers and you've probably already found that. You don't mention the manufacturer of the instruments. Have you tried them to see if they have anything available. Some vendors don't have native LabVIEW drivers but if they have IVI-C or IVI-Com drivers, they can be used. What are the types of instruments and who makes them. Often you can find a driver for a similar instrument and do some simple modifications. If no one posts here to say they have drivers, you can go and request a driver. NI develops drivers based on demand and there is no guarantee when or if they will develop them for you. You can use the Instrument I/O Assistant for communication and if you need a full driver for each, check the resources available for development on the first link I mentioned.

[2605]

Thanks for your reply ,

I list here the brand and the name of each instrument :

**Pattern Generator

HP70841B

**Error detector

HP70842B

**Vector Signal Generator

Agilent 8780A
HP

**Digital Communications Analyzer

HP / Agilent 83480A

**

8350B Sweep Oscillator

I am a beginer in LABVIEW so i don't know a lot of modifying the similar driver but as you said that it's a simple modification that I can try it later.THAnks so much .

Anyway , if i ask NI for driver , do i have to pay it ??I heard that i have topay the fee if they do't have driver already???

thanks for your answer.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Don't you use any instruments that aren't discontinued or obsolete? If NI does a driver it would be free. Frankly though, since they old and obviously NI didn't create a driver when they were newer (neither did Agilent), there's not much chance that NI will do a driver now.

A checked a few of them at Agilent's web site and at least I could find the programming manuals so at least you would have some documentation on how to talk to the instruments. Making a conversion from a similar driver might be simple. First you have to find an instrument from Agilent that performs a similar task. Then you will have to study the programming language for that instrument and compare it to the programming language for the instrument you do have. The age of the instruments works against you here. Some of these instruments may predate the time when vendors adopted something called SCPI (Standard Commands for Progammable Instruments). SCPI formalized command syntax. Prior to SCPI, instruments oftern had very cryptic command sets and often, instruments of the same type and the same vendor would have vastly different command sets.

I would recomend that you start by trying to issue commands to the instruments with MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer). Then you can give the Instrument I/O Assistant a try. That's a much easier task than trying to write a complete driver from scratch. Writing a driver though, is no more difficult than writing any other LabVIEW program and in many ways, simpler. For one, you have guidelines and some templates that can get you started. If you are short of time and can afford it, you can also contact one of the companies in the NI Alliance Program (http://www.ni.com/alliance/) and have someone else do it. Good luck.

[2605]

Thanks so much for your reply. I am in a engineer training before obtaining my master so i have to do a project. My project is to find a protocol of Labview and Smartest (a software for testing ) , for now , i have to use Smartest to control these instruments with driver. I know how to use Smartest but i don't have driver to use with Smartest.

Do you have any idea about a driver similar to the ones that I have ??

I want to modify the drivers that NI has and after that I can use them.

Thanks alot.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I'm confused now. You say you have use a program called Smartest to control the instruments. Why are you trying to find LabVIEW drivers then? I have no idea what Smartest is but I know you can only use native LabVIEW drivers with LabVIEW. What exactly are you needing. Can you provide a link to a description of Smartest if you are trying to integrate that with LabVIEW?

[2605]

Thanks for your reply.

I have to use Smartest to control instruments and Labview to link them together , I know that Smartest can use some parameters in driver configuration to control instrument but normaly all drivers are written in LAbview so that's why i don't know how to use Smartest to control instruments. As I understand i have to find an interface between Smartest and Labview.(Protocol).

Smartest is a software for testing integrated circuits.You can generate a signal for a circuit and compare the result from circuit and expected signal.I am not sure if i explained well for you but it's too difficult to explain it . At the moment I would like to find interface between 2 softwares.

By the way , thank you so much for your reply.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Okay. I think I understand a little more. You want to use LabVIEW to control the instruments and either have this Smartest control LabVIEW or have LabVIEW control Smartest at the same time it's controlling the instruments.

Apart from the advice I already gave you, I don't know what to add about creating drivers for the instruments. If you have to do all the work yourself, then you need to start studying the programming and operation manuals and determine what functions you need. Try them out with the interactive control in MAX and then use either the Instrument I/O Assistant or individual VISA Read/Write commands. Study the shipping examples and some of the drivers on NI's download site to get an idea of basic instrument communication works.

As far as integrating Smartest and LabVIEW, that's a different subject and you should start a new thread on it. I could find only one previous post about Smartest and I'm not even sure if it's the same software. You should really provide a link to information on the software if you want more help.

[2605]

Thanks for your reply.This is summary of Smartest:

Between Smartest and external instruments, there is a block calling GENERAL INSTRUMENT DRIVER (GID). This GID communicates with external instruments and Smartest. How they communicate each other???

 GID provides:

• Interfacing the Smartest software.
• Communication to the hardware interfaces (GPIB, GPIO…).
• Communication with the operator.
• Modification the driver at the run time.
• Calling the user-written hook function.

A GID is not working alone, it must use equipment specific plug-in. The plug-in provides driver functionality and data. For example, the handle specific protocol used for communication between driver and instrument.

*There is a third element that is completing GID and equipment specific plug-in is DRIVER CONFIGURATIONà important for whole driver setup, allow configuring the driver for specific application. (p20)

*The fourth element is GLOBAL CONFIGURATION. Driver CONFI and equipment specific plug-in to be used by driver and selected in Global CONFIG.

*Picking driver configuration and plug-in to be used are done in Global CONFI.

*The General equipment driver is selected via the prober handle library selection of the test program. This is only one specification that you need to make in the test program definition in order to use the driver.

*There are some functions from application models that control the driver and run actions, for ex, driver initialization and termination, changes of the operation mode of the driver or driver configuration at runtime.

*DRIVER CONFI at run time:

    From the application model, u can call driver functions which allow u to change the settings of driver configuration parameters at runtime.

[2605]

And Smartest has some parameters and functions that we can call them form application models.

for ex: you have a package test to use these parameters and these functions.

I am block because drivers are written in LAbwiew .And I have no idea to use these drivers between Smartest and equipment.

Do you have any idea???thanks alot