Communication dropout with GPIB-USB-B

[Albert.Geven]

I agree with Jeff that Stanford has a bad record in GPIB compliancy.

[JÞB]

Ouch. I just looked at the OPs alias. I hope we did not just stuff our feet in our mouths.

[Albert.Geven]

truth stays truth

[Kevin@SRS]

Only a small amount...

Actually I'd like to take a discussion about this off line from the forum and get your ideas about this. Please email me directly at jkm@thinksrs.com. thanks...

But again, my biggest problem is why is communication (& device ID) lost between the computer and a single instrument. The lost instrument can be Tek, Agilent or SRS. It isn't that the instrument misses some commands. The National Instruments driver completely looses it from the attached devices list. If you run NI Measurment & Automation Explorer, the lost instrument isn't in the list. To get it back you need to disconnect & reconnect the GPIB-USB pod from the computer.

Does the NI driver remove a device from its list if it can't communicate with it? Knowing this would help us debug the system.

[JÞB]

The next step is going to be figuring out what went wrong.  Are you familliar with the GPIB Analizer?  Do you Have a station you can run with conditional probes?

Can you Share the code or describe it in detail?

My GUESS (and my 8-ball has been known to be somewhat unreliable) is that on of the instruments is sticking a line or something where the next command can't go out, or the next device won't get addressed correctly.  If you can halt on this condition you'll be able to inspect the capture and maybe find the offending device/command/FW.