Trying to connect to Power Supply via IP address

[Warren Harding]

Hello,

I am attempting to connect to a Sorensen XEL60-1.5P power supply. I have it's IP address and port number, but I am stuck on an Error 63, quoted at the end. I have tried advice in this forum and online to no avail, including:

*disabling the firewall

*pinging the ip address

*tools>>options>>VI Server

*http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/6ccced1045c479d286256a3a00655123

*opening all ports LV wants

Nothing improves the situation. What shall I try?

Thanks very much

Error 63:

LabVIEW:  Serial port receive buffer overflow.
=========================
LabVIEW:  The network connection was refused by the server. For TCP/IP, make sure the server is running and listening on the port you are trying to use. Firewalls can also cause a server to refuse a connection. For VI Server, make sure you have enabled VI Server from Tools>>Options>>VI Server.

[smercurio_fc]

Use VISA. You can use TCP/IP with VISA when talking to instruments. See the LabVIEW Help on VISA resource names for instruments that use TCP/IP. You can also create an alias in MAX for the instrument if you wish.

[Warren Harding]

Thanks knight.

I've also tried VISA, mostly within Measurement and Automation, but this fails too. I can see it on the network, I have assigned it an alias, and I confirm the connection, but I cannot interact with it except via the webpage (visiting the ip address with a typical webbrowser allows the user to contol the power supply).

I ultimately need to write a VI for this device to restrict the end user's ability to control the device. With VISA and this impotence it is unclear how to do this.

[smercurio_fc]

Have you tried to use the drivers? There's a link on that page for LabVIEW drivers. I think they're IVI drivers.

[Warren Harding]

Thanks. Unfortunately, this is not the issue. The IVI have been installed since the start. I reinstalled, but this did not change the situation.

I also tried this with NIDCPower and receive:

Error -1073807343 occurred at niDCPower Initialize With Channels.vi

Possible reason(s):
Insufficient location information or the device or resource is not present in the system.

Although NIDCPower is only described by my documentation to be compatible with three PXIs, which I am not using.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Notice the 'NI' part of NIDCPower? It stands for National Instruments and as you are not using an NI power supply, I don't understand your trying to use it. If you have MAX correctly configured, you can use the IVI power supply class driver or call the Sorensen instrument specific driver.

I think you first need to establish basic communication with instrument in MAX using the VISA test panel. You say that MAX can find the instrument but communication fails? What exactly are you doing to test the communication? Are you sending *IDN? Are you terminating your query with either a LF or CR?

[Warren Harding · Accepted solution]

No reason to be an ass to people asking advice. I tried NIDC per another's advice, dutifully reporting the result.

I can in fact get the power supply to operate on VISA. It required fixing two bugs, in case others are interested:

* Setting VI_ATTR-TERMCHAR_EN to VI_TRUE

* Creating the VISA resource under the "manual entry of raw socket" rather than one of the other two. This is necessary because I am trying to communicate through a specified port.

So I am okay now, I just cannot pass strings directly via IP and port as I thought I should. It may be a device-specific issue, but I am still interested in others' thoughts.

Thanks,

Warren Harding

[Dennis_Knutson]

Not to be an ass about it but what did you set the term character to be? Was it the CR or LF that I suggested? Have you tried the same thing with the TCP/IP string you are sending?