topic Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW in Digital Multimeters (DMMs) and Precision DC Sources

How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:47:11 GMT

I am having trouble getting Labview to communicate with my Keithley 2000 multimeter. Keep getting error: "Error Hex 0xBFFF0012 Invalid resource reference specified. Parsing error. " Not quite sure what that means. Still very new to LabView, so if you can help, assume I dont know anything about it. Thanks.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Dennis_Knutson — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:06:57 GMT

Are you using this driver for programming the meter? If so, do you have a serial or GPIB connection. What have you selected for the VISA Resource Name? You need to select the correct resource. If you have a GPIB connection, you should have done a scan for instruments in MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer) and had it detected. Then, you can right click on the arrow on the right side of the VISA Resource Name control and get a list of available resources. Your GPIB connection should be shown as well as any com ports in your system.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:59:23 GMT

The driver I am using I downloaded through LabVIEW by going to HELP > FIND INSTRUMENT DRIVERS , selecting Keithley from the drop down box for manufacturers and typing 2000 in the additional keywords box. I then picked the driver for labview 8.0 rated with 3.03 stars. I am using a GPIB connection to communicate with the multimeter. I have not selected a VISA resource name, how is that done? Is that when you use MAX?

Sorry for the lack of knowledge, when using an agilent power supply in the past, it was just a matter of downloading the instrument driver in the same way as above (from the help menu > find instrument drivers) and then using the vi's that were included.

I downloaded the file your hyperlink pointed to, but am not quite sure where is should go to function properly with labview. I will work on using the current driver I have for Keithley, going through MAX and assign a VISA resource name. I will update you as soon as I know more. Thanks for all your help so far.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Dennis_Knutson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:35:10 GMT

In MAX, you right click on the GPIB interface and select Scan for Instruments. This will find all of the GPIB instruments. The VISA resource name is based on the GPIB address. For example, if the instrument is at address 12, the VISA Resource Name is GPIB0::12::INSTR. If you downloaded a driver before and it worked without you doing anything, then you got lucky because the default VISA Resource Name in the driver was the same as the actual instrument's. An instrument will usually have a default address set at the factory and the author of a driver will usually set the resource name to be the same.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:15:19 GMT

Thanks Dennis, going through MAX helped me to figure out what was wrong with my address call out. Apparently I did not include a INSTR at the end of GPIB::16::INSTR VISA input. Now I have another problem, so if you can help me even more, I would appreciate it.

A sub vi that Keithley has provided called ke2000 Data Read Single that is contained in a while loop will run only 5 times before hanging up. Investigating further, inside this vi, a vi that appears to be the SQL communication vi for the keithley is the culprit. One layer deeper, and it appears that the VISA Write vi is where the program stops. I have tried giving the ke2000 Data Read Single a timeout constant of 100ms, but it still pauses on this step indefinitely. Any ideas?

Once this works, I desire to read data from multiplie channels on the Keithley. I have not yet seen any way to measure multiplie channels, do you know how that is done?

Thanks again for all the help.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Dennis_Knutson — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:21:36 GMT

It's not SQL but SRQ. SRQ is a service request. The instrument will issue a service request when a reading is available. Do you have anything else in the loop? How do you have the trigger configured? If you look at the Keithley 2000 Read single Example, if sets the instrument up for bus triggering and then the bus trigger command has to be issued. If you don't want to issue a bus trigger, I believe you can set it up for immediate and then each time you call the read, it will return a value. I don't have the manual to confirm that though.

I don't know of an example for multiple channels. The Configure Scan function will allow you to set the start and stop channels. When the scan is complete, you would call the Data Read Multiple.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:15:02 GMT

You are right with the SRQ vi. My mistake. I have a couple of other things in the loop, mostly taken from the Read Single example Keithley vi. The program is still pretty rough, and I was just trying to get a feel for what can and cannot be done, but I will attach it to make things a little clearer. After quite a bit of changes, I am still having the problem with the Read Single vi working for the first few times then pausing indefinitely (I think). The only way to get the Read Single to work again is to exit LabVIEW completely and open the program again.

Thanks for the help.

Message Edited by djconfused on 08-14-2007 04:15 PM

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Chad B — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:53:15 GMT

There are actually a few different drivers for the Keithley available at our driver site, http://ni.com/idnet . When I searched for the Keithley 2000, I found a LabVIEW Plug-and-play driver as well as an IVI driver. Which one are you using, and have you tried the other one?

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:03:19 GMT

Chad,

I am not sure which one was downloaded, I just used the Look for Drivers option in LabVIEW and downloaded the highest rated driver for labview 8.0. A quick update on my program: It seems that the problem with the Read Single hanging up the rest of the program is due in some way to the Highlight Execution option in LabVIEW. I noticed that if the Read Single vi was in a while loop and the Highlight Execution option was turned on, the Read Single would pause after three or four sucessful executions (on first opening LabVIEW. For Read Single vi to run sucessfully again LabVIEW needed to be closed and re-opened.) would pause. Turning off the Highlight Execution option and placing an indicator that would display updates everytime the while loop executed showed that the Read Single vi would keep operating hundreds of times without problems. I am not sure what caused this, do you think it could be something with the Keithley driver?

Thanks.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Chad B — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:21:08 GMT

That might have to do with the time between your trigger and your read. Does the device have some sort of timeout for reading data after a trigger?

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:35:12 GMT

Thats what I figured was the problem, but there is no time out component of the Read Single vi. Is there anything else you think could be causing the hang up?

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Chad B — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:05:10 GMT

Performance of external hardware during Highlight Execution mode is unpredictable at best. The delays between VI calls often cause timeouts and other erratic behavior. Is your application working as you'd like it to when it's run normally?

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:35:28 GMT

After doing some experimentation with the program lately, I think I have made some discoveries that may help figure out what is wrong. I have created a sub vi for measuring a channel of the Keithley 2000 multimeter once. This vi is based off of the example Single Read vi that Keithley provided with the driver for the multi-meter. When this vi has a Initialize.vi and a Close.vi at the begining and end of the program (respectively) it runs fine, without any problems. Without these two vi's (or maybe just one of the two?) the program will hang, and following the hanging portions of the vi, I found that the apparent culprit is the VISA Write step.

Now since my overall program will take a number of measurements, I have noticed that the first measurement with my Single Read vi goes off without a problem. It is the second one that always hangs. To get the program to take a single measurement again, LabVIEW has to be closed and reopened. What do you think? Is this a problem with Initializing the vi? Maybe closing?

Either way, I would like a solution because the faster the program runs the better. If I need to use the Initalize and Close for every single measurement I take, I imagine it will bog down the program and make it quite a bit slower. Also, I have heard that Initalizing a piece of hardware over and over in a program can cause the program to crash. Know anything about that?

Thanks for your help.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Chad B — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:49:35 GMT

Think of a "VISA Session" as a phone call. The "initialize" part is where you "dial the number" of the instrument you want to talk to by configuring the port with a baud rate, termination character, and so on. The "Write" and "Read" functions are where you talk and listen, respectively. The "close" function hangs up the phone.

So if you are initializing and closing the VISA session every time you call a SubVI, it's like picking up the phone, dialing your friend, saying "Hello," then hanging up the phone. You then pick up the phone again, dial your friend again, say "How's it going?", and hang up the phone, and so on, and so on. You'll see much slower performance if you do it this way.

On the other hand, if you don't close the VISA session when your program is done, it's like saying "Goodbye" to your friend but not hanging up the phone. When you run your program again and try to open another VISA session to the port, you'll get the same result as trying to dial that phone again--it won't work.

That might explain why the communication works once but not twice--if your VISA session isn't being closed properly, you won't be able to open another one. So just make sure that you're closing your VISA session somewhere at the end of your program.

If you think that might be the cause of the problem, here's a way to test that: After your program crashes such that you can't communicate with your instrument again, open a blank VI. Drop a "VISA Close" VI on it and wire a VISA Resource Constant to the input with the port you're using. Run that VI, then try your original program again. If you get data then, it's a VISA session problem.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

djconfused — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:08:22 GMT

Chad,

You are totally right. A co-worker and I just found out the same thing. After agreeing that it would be better to have a single initialize and close, we worked pretty much through a trial and error method to find out what would work and what would not. We found out that if the keithley program is aborted in the middle of a program without undergoing the close function, it will pause on the the single data read vi until LabVIEW is closed and reopened. Strangely, the keithley DMM did not need to be power cycled.

We eventually decided that the best way to get around this error was to have the close vi at the beginning of the program prior to the initialize vi. This way, if the program was aborted it could still be run later because the first thing the program will do is close the keithley DMM. Now, while watching this program run with a close vi at the beginning I noticed that if the program runs uninterrupted, the second time through an error will crop up. Nothing fatal, it does not shut down the program or even show up with a simple error handler, but I think it comes from trying to close a device that was closed in the first place. Not really sure though.

Once this program is finished and packaged as an executable, the close vi at the beginning will be removed, but it is pretty necessary presently for debugging and testing purposes.

I think thats it, thanks for the help.

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

Chris_R. — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:11:12 GMT

Hi djconfused,

Thanks for the detailed update. We are glad things are working for you!

Best of luck with the rest of the application development!

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

leandrodzc — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:58:31 GMT

Good morning everybody

I am new in this forum and in Lab view and my task is to do an interface with this port.

After read lots of messages here, I remember that I installed NI 488,2 driver and It didnt work. So, I uninstall-ed NI488,2 and then Installed keithley driver(It is not possible to have both because they are conflictant) and installed another drive That a I have found in this forum(keithley 2000).

I made the device communicate with the Labview but I dont know what happened that in the next day that anything was working!

I am afraid that some actualization was installed when I restart the computer.

so, I will put in order every thing:

-installed all Lab view and drivers (including ni488,2)

-uninstalled ni driver and installed keithey interface to test the port comunication(that send me an asnwer of the device that can communicate with the port)

-installed labview-keithley driver for keithley 2000 multimeter, found on the forum´s topics.

-opened the single measure Vi example and it worked!

Next day:

-I installed other drivers for the other device I need to comunicate, the keithley 7002,and my programm stopped to comunicate or find gpib 11( the address of gpib)

-so, Unistalled these programs and It Worked again.

-I turned on my computer next day and It wasn't working again! it was unable to find the gpib correct address. I notice that in the max, the gpib changed automatically the address of the device to 10 (but the day earlier, was 11, the correct one and working)

-things tried: reinstall all drivers, delete all new programs I installed, turn firewall off.

I tried to configure another gpib but are so much addresses and I don´t know what to put in the fields.There isn't other way to detect automatically?

(F5 only dosnt work). I didnt need to configure in the first time.

thank you very much

Leandro V. Zaccarias

Re: How do I interface with a Keithley 2000 multimeter using LabVIEW

EricS. — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 16:10:06 GMT

Hi Leandro,

If you are using an NI GPIB card in your computer, you will need the NI-488.2 drivers installed.

In addition, to communicate with the Keithley 2000 multimeter, it is easiest to use the drivers that Dennis linked here. You will install NI-488.2 first, and then the Keithley driver.

After doing so, there should be examples in the Keithley driver folder on your computer, and an additional LabVIEW Pallet for the Keithley 2000.

You should also be able to have drivers for the 7002 installed at the same time without a problem, but know that that driver is not supported or certified by NI.