Can Communicate with some but not all instruments

[TC7]

Controller is running XP and has PCI card.  Controller can communicate with 2 of the 3 instruments.  Let's call the instrument it cannot communicate with, instrument 3.

Instrument 3 is a PC using 2000 Professional, and has NI PCI card.  Both controller and #3 have NI 2.3.0.3500 driver.

Instrument 3 can see instrument 1 & 2, but not the controller.

Any ideas?  The primary address for the controller is 0 and the address for instrument 3 is 10.

TC7

[johnsold]

I think the NI-PCI cards default to being the Controller. Can you verify that Instrument 3 thinks it is NOT a controller? I have not tried this so I cannot provide specifics. Do you get any kind of error if you try to communicate with Address 10?

Lynn

[TC7]

I've attached screenshots of the settings from both pc's.....instrument "0"(controller) and instrument "3".  I think they are correct.....I can't find other settings that work.

Each PC can communicate with instruments 1 and 2, but neither pc can see each other.

Thanks for the quick reply......I hope you can help,#

TC7

[ScottieB]

TC7,

Your settings look good to me.  Note a couple of things:

1) You cannot "Scan for Instruments" from the PC that is not a controller.  This PC won't be able to "see" the other one.  The system controller PC should be able to see the non-controller with a scan for instruments.

2) You must have an open handle to the GPIB board on the non-controller PC so that it responds appropriately to the scanning controller.  It won't respond to "*IDN?" unless you have a program running that does that.  You need to at least have MAX open on the slave PC at PAD 10.

3) If #2 doesn't work, open IBIC and peform this command on the slave: "ibfind gpib0".  This will open a handle to the board.  You don't have to do anything else on this PC at the moment...leave it in that condition and then do a scan from the controller.  PAD 10 should show up in your list.

If none of this works, I need to see a SPY capture on both PC's along with a description of what you are doing and in what order.  Start the Spy capture from a fresh boot, and let it run through all your tests, then post it here.

Hope this helps,

Scott B.

GPIB Software

National Instruments

[TC7]

Thank you ScottieB........I understand now.......basically, when I tried to communicate using the higher level programs that are using the GPIB, everything started working.  I suspect that the 2 areas that I might have been confused about were:

1:  A PC that is not a controller will not be able to 'see' the other PC.

2.  You have to have the higher level programs running in order to get the correct responses when viewing from the Measurements and Automation application.

Thanks again,

TC7

[ScottieB]

Glad to hear that you got it all worked out.

Scott B.
GPIB Software
National Instruments