Hello NI Community,
My bench is using a NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device to connect to a variety of instruments.
I'm experiencing some strange behavior from NI MAX regarding VISA resource names after my lab experienced a power sag which unexpectedly power cycled all devices including the host PC. In particular, after the power sag all VIs are only able to recognize VISA resource names in the default(?) format such as "GPIBIO::XX::INSTR" (see attached) in the same fashion as they are displayed under "GPIB Instrument Resources" in the VISA Interactive Control. The issue arises as my TestStand sequences refer to these instruments by custom string handles / VISA resource names.
Usually after a power sag NI MAX also resets all instrument names to the "GPIBIO:XX:INSTR" format (see attached) and I just need to rename them back to the custom names however this time the custom names persisted even after several manual restarts of the PC (see attached). The following actions were also unsuccessful:
- Resetting the NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device in NI MAX (both to reinitialize hardware and clear software settings).
- Scanning for instruments from the NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device.
- Refreshing the NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device.
- Renaming the instruments through NI MAX despite them already displaying correctly.
What was ultimately successful was manually unplugging the NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device from the other GPIB connections and then reconnecting it. Afterwards NI MAX then displayed the instrument resource names as "GPIBIO:XX:INSTR" and such. At this point renaming the device in NI MAX to the custom names used by my sequence resolved the issue as usual.
My question then is if there is some software solution to invoke the NI GPIB-USB-HS+ device and NI MAX to refresh the VISA resource names to whatever the VIs see rather than crawling under the desk.
Guide to attached images:
VISA_Resources_from_VI.png -- What the VISA resource names display as from the VI drop down after a power sag.
VISA_Resources_from_NI_MAX_usual.png -- What the VISA resource names display as from NI MAX after a *typical* power sag. Simple rename fixes from here.
VISA_Resources_from_NI_MAX_unusual.png -- What the VISA resource names display as from NI MAX after this *atypical* power sag. Needed to re-plug the device to refresh this list.
Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide.
Thank you,
Anthony A.
