Possible Labview conflict with Measurement Computing GPIB Board

[Pirouz]

I am writing a VI on Labview 6.1 in order to download data through a Measurement Computing PCI-GPIB port from an old (~15-20 years) Nicolet 4094 scope. I have installed the port using Mesurement Computing's driver (as the instructions say) but Labview 6.1 gives an error (code 2) when calling the port. Using NI's driver does not work either. When I go back to Labview 5, I get the same error with MC's driver but NI's diver seems to work OK. I would really like to work with Labview 6, since I have a lot of VI's already written in that environment. Does someone have an explanation or solution to this problem?

thanks,

Pirouz

[DiegoF]

HI,

I've heard this problem before, but I haven't heard of a resolution.

The NI's GPIB driver (NI-488.2) will not work with the Measurement Computing board. Not in LabVIEW 5 or 6. If you are using the GPIB VIs in LabVIEW 5 with the Measurement Computing board is because the MC driver replaced something.

A device driver is a software component that requires detailed knowledge of the hardware it manages. NI's driver is written to control NI's GPIB hardware ONLY. The same applies to the MC driver.

The driver also provides a Language interface, so that you can access the driver's functionality. To program in C, a driver will provide a header file with the function declarations and a dll (or static library). For LabVIEW the driver will provide the V
Is. These VIs are provided by the driver and developed by the driver manufacturer. Most likely these VIs are wrappers for the dll function calls. This mechanism hasn't changed between versions of LabVIEW.

You should contact Measurement Computing. They should be able to troubleshoot the problem, since they know what their driver installs.

DiegoF
National Instruments.