tvancura@bermuda.ethz.ch (Tobias Vancura) wrote:
>Hello,
>
> I use the GPIB interface for communication with most of my
> instruments. Though all LabView drivers that are shipped
> with new instruments are written using VISA. Until now I
> always rewrote them replacing the VISA stuff with direct
> GPIB calls. This is quite cumbersome for bigger libs and I
> was wondering how much overhead VISA caused and whether I
> should probably slowly start switching over.
>
> What are your experiences?
>
> Cheers, Tobias
My experiences with VISA are fine. The overhead is
small, and managing your instruments is easier,
especially since you don't have to rewrite the ready
made drivers. The VISA calls may even be faster,
because the GPIB addresses are not passed along as
strings
(which need extra decoding) but as binary digits
(which needs a simple lookup table).
There are some atricles on how to get the highest
speeds using VISA in de developer zone (they used to
be in the knowledgebase, but who knows when that
went out the window 😉
VISA offers a lot more that you loose, I can recommend it.
Maarten
