How can I obtain the power vs wavelength using HP8164 with labview? I am using a GPIB/USB interface. The device is recognized in MAX. I am a beginner in Labview.

[NathanT]

Hello vbadj,
       You can start off by downloading an unsupported instrument driver from IDNet.  It looks like it requires you to download some additional components from the manufacturer's website.  It is offered "as is", but should provide at the very minimum a good start when it comes to programmatically controlling your instrument.  Here is a good tutorial about using Instrument Drivers in LabVIEW.

If you elect to not use the driver, you can develop your own simple application that sends commands and reads data from the instrument.

There are plenty of other great resources on ni.com, just try searching for "LabVIEW", "Instrument Control", "GPIB" etc...

Let us know which direction you choose to go.

Good Luck,

NathanT

[vbadj]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I have installed the instrument driver. The device is visible in MAX devices and interface tab. I tried creating a lambda scan application. But I am getting an error message saying,

The error message is  hp816x Prepare Lambda Scan.vi ERR Driver Status:  (Hex 0xBFFC0D02) Visa Resource not found. Check HPIB-Bus Address!

The hpinitialize.vi is recognizing the device and I am passing the ihandle from intialize to the prepare lambda function.

[NathanT]

Hello vbadj,
       I am glad to hear that you can see your device in MAX, that is an important first step.  Please make sure that the VISA resource control in your application has the correct address of your instrument.  It might not be a bad idea to either set that value as default OR turn it into a constant.  Other than that, make sure that the VISA resource is being passed properly between the driver VIs.

Cheers,

NathanT