Can I connect 2 NI PCI GPIB cards to one device, but using only one computer to talk to the device at a time ?

[***]

I have two computers which contain NI PCI GPIB cards.
I am developing an application on two different OS's.
(W98, Windows 2k)

The application talks to a Lecroy scope.

I need to constantly switch from computer A, to computer B for my development. This requires that I manually move the GPIB cable from Computer A to Computer B, many times a day.

It would be very useful to be able to connect both computers to the scope at the same time.

I WILL NOT be sending commands from both computers concurrently. Only one computer will talk to the scope at a time.

Currently, if I connect both computers to the scope, neither computer can talk to the scope.

Th
ere must be a simple solution for configuring the GPIB card.

thanks

[Koninika]

Hello,
Yes you can connect 2 GPIB cards to one device and use one computer to talk to each as long as both the cards have different addresses. And either one is off and the other is system controller or one is controller and the other is a non-controller.
Try that configuration and it should work.
Good luck and have a great day!
Koninika
National Instruments

[kozlov]

Dear Koninika,

would you, please, offer any example how to manage this configuration. I have in mind to prevent other NI GPIB card to used GPIB bus for some time (another word to lock GPIB bus). I have got the same configuration. The problem is that if I communicate with my oscilloscope the second GPIB is able to start own task if a pause in GPIB operation present. For example I ask Oscilloscope about record length then I am going to read data but in the same time the second GPIB start its activities a bit faster.
I would like to get possibility to lock GPIB bus for some time and then unlock it.

Thanks in advance.

Mikhail Kozlov

[Koninika]

Hello Mikhail,
Seems like you want your boards to communicate with the device but get the device to only listen and not do anything. If incase that's the configuration that you want, you can check out Configuring an IEEE 488 Interface Board for Listen-Only or Talk-Only Operations Using NI-488.2. This article talks about one board but you can add another board by changing the configuration settings. Just make sure that the boards, and the device have different addresses and also make sure one's a system controller and the other one's a non-controller.
Let me know if these suggestions work out for you. If not, feel free to ask questions.
G
ood luck and have a great day!
Koninika
National Instruments.

[kozlov]

Dear Koninika,
thank you for your assistance very much.

No, I would like to have two computers that communicating whith the same instruments by means of GPIB bus. Both computers have got NI PCI-GPIB card. The addresses is different. Both GPIB boards are system controller. This system works very well untill both computer try to use GPIB bus at the same time. I realize that my confuguration is not fully correct and I have to use call like pass control. But this approach is not fit to my application since it is necessary for me to get two independet system. Using the NI LAN-GPIB gateway hardware does not fit as well since it is impossimle (as far as I understand) to obtain exclusive lock of GPIB-ENET hardware by means of NI VISA and go on u
sing instruments drivers (see my questions "exclusive lock of GPIB or GPIB-ENET hardware by means of NI VISA" in VISA forum).

With best regards,

Mikhail Kozlov