NI 488.2 for Mac OS X 10.7.1

[sri243]

Hello,

I wanted to connect to a spectrum analyzer HP 4195A to my Mac running OS X 10.7.1 (Lion) via a NI GPIB-USB-HS interface. It seems as though none of the current versions of NI 488.2 are currently compatible with OS X 10.7. On your site, its says a fix is scheduled for Q4 of 2011. Can anyone give me any more information about when the driver will be updated?

Thank you!

[Eric_LV]

Hey sri243,

There were a number of changes in Mac OS 10.7.1 that have made adapting our 488.2 drivers difficult.  I can't give any specific information about when the driver will be released but it should be in the coming months.  In the mean time there is a fix you can try that involves running OS 10.7 in 32 bit mode which solves some of the issues, but it is not guarenteed to work because 488.2 relies on a protocol that Mac OS 10.7 no longer has called Rosetta .  The possible fix can be found in the link below.  

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/websearch/C6E3E969DD8742E0862578A7007B7105?OpenDocument

[JasonSmith]

Hi sri243,

In my experience the workaround mentioned above didn't actually work, due to some changes in file permissions on Lion that prevent GPIB hardware from being installed properly. We are wrapping up work on our NI-488.2 release for Mac OS X Lion, which resolves the mentioned problems, and works with a 64 bit kernel. Watch for it to be available for download in the coming weeks. I will make sure we reply to this post when it is available.

-Jason S.

[JasonSmith]

NI-488.2 3.0.1 for Mac OS X is now available. You can download it from the following link:

NI-488.2 3.0.1 - Mac OS X

-Jason S.

[WilliJD1]

Did you get this running?

Using the NI-provided "Interface Controller" allows me to communicate to my GPIB device without any problems and with the 488.2-3.0.1 drivers.

But my 32bit-Matlab (R2010a/7.10i) won't see the GPIB device at all.

Any idea why?

By the way, I have Win7 in Parallels. No problem neither with Matlab nor MAX.  Both programs can communicate with GPIB instruments. Just the Mac-Matlab won't see the GPIB under 10.7.2. ?!

[kunnykun]

I got the exact same problem in 10.7.4 Lion. I have asked NI for the 64bit drivers for the GPIB-USB-HS adapter. strange that matlab 32bit does not recognize the adapter...

[pantxod]

Hello,

Is there a hope to see a real 64 bit VISA/GPIB/DAQmxBase set of libraries for os X. All that is proposed by NI are workarounds to have them work with 32 bit applications on apple's 64 bit modern (2 years now!) kernels.

None of those workarounds will let me use my usb-HS-GPIB and my 6009 usb daq boards, with other libraries shipped with the os or compiled with fink (which are 64 bit). I meen developping 32 bit applications on mac os X is not really an option anymore.

[Burrito]

Hi pantxod,

According to this page, It looks like VISA 5.1.1 and later and DAQmx and later are 64 bit compatible on OS X without a workaround.

[pantxod]

No they are compatible with os X 64 bit kernel, but they must be linked against 32 bit applications. It is clearly mentioned for Visa here, see the last footnote. For DAQmxBase the problem is the same, even though I didn't find it written anywhere (just tried to link in 64 bit mode).

[bartzumbari]

I'm happy to see version 14 of the NI VISA drivers for Mac OS X that finally have full 64-bit application support.  But there's still no real 64-bit counterpart for 488.2.  It sure would be nice if full 64-bit version of the 488.2 driver could be released.

Thanks