Get Status String GPIB amp manual VAGUE

[GregFreeman]

I have been working with LabVIEW for a while but don't have much GPIB experience so I was looking for help on this one. The amplifier I'm working with returns "an amplifier status string when the interface is addressed to talk." I need to get this string but it says nothing about how to address the device to talk. It just says you have to in order to get this status string. I am not looking to use the labVIEW stat function as it seems this wont return the same thing. It's more of an overall status of the device.

I was wondering if there is a standard for addressing the unit to talk, because nothing is listed in the manual? I am using a GPIB 488.1 not 488.2. Also, this status string includes different faults that I will be monitoring. Is this something I want to be monitoring continuously, or are faults things that will only occur after issuing a command? The manual lists 7 commands: operate, standby, reset, power up/down, and mode1/2.

Anyways, sorry if this was confusing but hopefully you catch my drift. I would love to post some code, but I don't even know where to start. If I can get some direction, or a simple block diagram (even a screenshot) to give me a basic idea that would be great.

There will be more questions I'm sure, but I don't want to cram them all into one post. And yes I have read over some of the NI tutorials, I'm just not quite understanding it, so I figured I'd go somewhere I can ask questions more directly. Thanks.

The version dejure of labview i'm using is 8.5

[Dennis_Knutson]

When you do a GPIB read, the controller will instruct the instrument to be a talker. Normally, you do not have to be concerned with all of the handshaking being done to switch a listener to a talker. That's all handled by the GPIB driver.

Does the documentation say that the instrument will return this status information without being written to first? Or, is the instrument a talker only?

If you could attach the instrument manual or provide a link to it, that would help.

[GregFreeman]

Unfortunately I don't have it in PDF format. I can't find it online either. There are only about 3 pages worth of software stuff, so I can type it out at a later time. I'll try just doing a read and see if that works. I have some VB software that controls the same stuff and looks like they just do a receive and it gets data back. Unfortunately I'm not hooked up to the hardware yet. I'm just trying to have an idea of how to set everything up while in this dev stage. Once I can get some hardware to try that, i'll see what happens. But you are saying that I may just be able to put a GPIB read function with X number of bits and it will get the status string they are talking about? If thats the case I will try that as soon as I get a chance. Thanks as always Dennis

[Dennis_Knutson]

If you have an NI GPIB board and the VB code uses that, you can turn on NI-Spy and see the commands.

[GregFreeman]

I don't think its an NI GPIB board. I'll check on the box, but attached is a data sheet. That's all I got for now but we'll see what I can accomplish in the next few days, and if I have more questions I can ask at that time. Thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

The instrument would not be using an NI board. Are you? And the VB code would have to looked at to determine whether it was written for an NI controller. If it's using VISA functions, then you can run NI-spy with the VB code. If it's using GPIB functions such as IBWRT and IBRD, then those are low level functions for an NI board and you can use NI-Spy.

[GregFreeman]

I'll look into it, it will probably be a few days before I'm back working on this again. Thanks for your quick responses

[GregFreeman]

Ran it with NI spy, here is what I'm getting and an attached screenshot of just simple test code. The VB stuff works fine and those commands/responses are up to step 8 in the screenshot. The labview commands/responses are step 9 and on.

I am using 488.2 subvi's here, which may be causing a problem, but based on the first 8 commands can someone give me a structure for setting up a simple program in labview that would execute the same.

The error it's giving me is number 3 which looks like an addressing error, and I may not have the right controller in charge

Message Edited by for(imstuck) on 01-25-2010 03:47 PM

[Dennis_Knutson]

Can you attach the actual NI-Spy capture and not an image of it?

[Dennis_Knutson]

Attaching the VB code could also help.