Using ivi driver for keithley 2410 on visual c#

[Nelson.fr]

Hello, im pretty new to controlling instruments. I've been struggling with using the ivi driver found here for the keithley 2410 on visual c#, i already installed a driver for the agilent 34401 and used itsuccesfully, but i cannot add a reference for the keithley 2410 on c#, i'm sure i followed the steps for the installation, but no COM is shown when i try to add a reference.

What am i doing wrong? do i have to do something else? or i just cannot use the driver with c#.

What other alternatives can i use to control my instrument,? thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You should really be asking Keithley but I'm guessing the driver is IVI-C.

[Nelson.fr]

Ah OK, thanks a lot, so thats the problem. By doing some research i also conclude the same.

And what national instruments-alternatives or technologies could i use to communicate with it?

Any help is very welcome, thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

I'm not sure what is the best way to use an IVI-C driver with c#. Perhaps there are procedures at ivifoundation.org?

Note: I just tried to go there but the connection timed out.

[Maur0]

Hi Nelson,

National Instruments offers many ways to establish the connection with third party instruments. One of the most common is to download directly the Instrument driver of your device, this will add an API in Labview with which you will be able to control the instrument.

Here is an explanation of the different Instrument drivers available.

What is an Instrument Driver?
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4803/en/

And here are the different procedures to get them:

How Can I Find and Install an Instrument Driver for My Instrument?

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/78FDB0C0DA2448E8862573B8005B64ED?OpenDocument

Finally, as an example, find attached the Instrument driver for your device, to use it with labview, labwindows/CVI or Measurement Studio for Visual Studio directly from the Instrument Driver Network.

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=1585

Cheers!!

[Nelson.fr]

Thanks Mauricio!

Nice information you gave me there, but i got some questions and i hope you can help me:

1- I read about IVI drivers, and read about interchangeable Virtual Instruments, which let me exchange different instruments regardless the bus and manufacturer, so, sorry if this is a dumb question, if IVI are interchangeable, why do i need to download an IVI driver for my instrument?, isn't just enough to write an application for lets say a power source regarless the brand?

2- Doing some research i found the IVI compliance package, can i write applications for any instrument regarless brand with it? can i use it on visual studio? do i still need to find the ivi driver for a specific instrument?

thanks for your help.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You always need the instrument specific driver because each instrument has a different command set. There can be major or minor differences even when the instruments come from the same vendor. If each vendor used the same identical set of features and the same identical commands sets, there would be no need for IVI and the class abstraction. The adoption of SCPI has only minimized the differences, not eliminated them.

[nyc_(is_out_of_here)]

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@Nelson.fr wrote:

Thanks Mauricio!

Nice information you gave me there, but i got some questions and i hope you can help me:

1- I read about IVI drivers, and read about interchangeable Virtual Instruments, which let me exchange different instruments regardless the bus and manufacturer, so, sorry if this is a dumb question, if IVI are interchangeable, why do i need to download an IVI driver for my instrument?, isn't just enough to write an application for lets say a power source regarless the brand?

2- Doing some research i found the IVI compliance package, can i write applications for any instrument regarless brand with it? can i use it on visual studio? do i still need to find the ivi driver for a specific instrument?

thanks for your help.

---

http://www.ivifoundation.org

[JÞB]

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@Nelson.fr wrote:

Thanks Mauricio!

Nice information you gave me there, but i got some questions and i hope you can help me:

1- I read about IVI drivers, and read about interchangeable Virtual Instruments, which let me exchange different instruments regardless the bus and manufacturer, so, sorry if this is a dumb question, if IVI are interchangeable, why do i need to download an IVI driver for my instrument?, isn't just enough to write an application for lets say a power source regarless the brand?

2- Doing some research i found the IVI compliance package, can i write applications for any instrument regarless brand with it? can i use it on visual studio? do i still need to find the ivi driver for a specific instrument?

thanks for your help.

---

That "Interchangable" in IVI really is missleading.

<SoapBox Mode ==viTRUE>

So, lets say I need an instrument of class "Scope" I look at my needs and determine for end of line testing of "Widgets" I need 4 Channels at 500Gs/s and at least 16bit of resolution and a half Terabyte of memory per record.  I find that manufacturer "HoMyLordcorp" actually offers such a device and I design my test system successfully.

A year later the scope is due for calibration so, the maintainence team says "Hey, its an IVI Class Scope instrument!  We can keep testing with a POScorp-xx Scope by just swapping it out."   Now the phones start  ringing in customer support because the product shipped passed test on the less capable instrument.

Or to put it in LabVIEW terms  Every Object inherits from the LabVIEW Generic object  But You can't drive a screw with a poodle!