Using AT-GPIB/TNT with RDA

[Double_D]

I am working on an instrument application that will have two PCs - a user computer and an instrument computer.  The instrument computer will contain several plug-in boards and the user computer will control these boards via RDA.  I have installed two NI-6602 devices and am able to run test panels successfully on them.  I have at least 3 other PCI cards that will be installed in the instrument computer, which leaves me with one free ISA slot and one free PCI slot.  Since I may need to add another counter/timer board, I would like to use a AT-GPIB/TNT ISA board for GPIB instruement control.  When I install this board in the computer, however, problems are encountered.  The computer detects the board correctly and apparently installs the driver.  If I run MAX from the user computer, only the NI-6602 devices appear in the configuration tree.  If I run MAX from the instrument computer and select "Devices and Interfaces", the MAX hangs and must be killed from Task Manager.  I am running Windows 2000 on the instrument PC.  Any thoughts on what could be causing this problem?

[LoganS]

What versions of NI-VISA, NI-DAQ, and NI-488.2 are you currently using?  Do you know?  Normally I would ask you to just open MAX and check the software versions, but if it's crashing, you may need to find the readme of each.  Even though you want to use the ISA slot, have you tried using a PCI-GPIB to verify that you can recognize everything you need?

Logan S.

[Double_D]

My software versions are as follows: NI-488.2 - 2.30
                                                             NI-DAQmx - 7.5
                                                             Traditional NI-DAQ - 7.4.0f0 (as reported by MAX; couldn't find a readme)
                                                             NI-VISA - 3.3.1

I don't have a PCI board on hand.  I connected a GPIB-ENET/100 and configured it.  I can ping the device, but it doesn't appear in MAX.  MAX doesn't hang with this device connected, though.

[Robert M]

If your AT-GPIB/TNT board is a PnP (plug & play) board, then I would recommend upgrading to NI-488.2 2.4 as well as NI-VISA 3.4.1.  If it is not a PnP board, then you will need to downgrade to NI-488.2 1.7, as that is that latest driver that supports this board.

[Double_D]

I upgraded NI-488.2 and NI-VISA as you suggested.  I tried two different AT-GPIB/TNT PnP boards after the changes and got similar results.  If I run the "Getting Started Wizard", the presence of the GPIB hardware and software is verified, but the last testing step fails.  The error message states that there is an IRQ conflict; no conflicts are shown for the GPIB card in Device Manager, however.   Changing the GPIB  IRQ didn't help.   IRQ 12 appears to be shared between one of two NI-6602 cards and a USB Universal Host Controller.  Both NI-6602 cards check out fine.  I plugged one of the GPIB cards into a lab computer running Windows 98 SE with NI-488.2 version 2.2, NI-VISA 2.01, and MAX 3.0.2 and it was detected with no problems.  I guess I will have to bite the bullet and go with an external controller.

[Robert M]

What operating system is on the computer that has the problem?  Is it Windows 98 as well?

[Double_D]

Windows 2000.

[LoganS]

RDA only works with Traditional DAQ boards.  I haven't worked with DAQ in about a year and I had forgotten this.  My apologies.  However you should still be able to control the GPIB devices on the Instrument Computer (IC) from your User Computer (UC), you just need to use VISA Server.  The following steps should allow you to configure this:

1. Scan for instruments on the IC and make sure they are all recognized correctly in the IC's MAX.

2. Give your UC access to the IC's VISA devices.  With the IP address of the UC, open MAX on the IC, select Tools >> NI-VISA >> VISA Options...  On the VISA Options page, Select VISA Server >> Security, and add your UC's IP address to the Remote Access List (make sure it is listed to have access, not "Deny all access".

3. (Re)Start the VISA server on your IC.  On the VISA Options page, select VISA Server.  If the "Stop server now" button is enabled, stop the server.  Then (re)start the VISA Server by pressing "Start server now".

4. On the UC, open MAX, and right click Remote Systems at the bottom of the list.  Choose to create a "Remote VISA System".  Enter the IP address of your IC, and make sure that the port number that is listed is the same port number that your VISA server opens on the IC, and press "Finish".

Once this is done, you should be able to access your AT/GPIB card in the IC from your UC.  You should now beable to do instrument control using VISA commands.

Logan S.

[Double_D]

I can't get past step 1, as MAX hangs when I click Devices and Interfaces with either AT-GPIB/TNT PnP card installed.

[Double_D]

I finally got VISA Server to work with the AT-GPIB.  I had to manually assign IRQ7 to the GPIB card.  Windows assigned IRQ9 to the card and Device Manager showed no conflicts with this setting.  The manual for the IC CPU board, however, shows that IRQ9 is cascaded to INT 0A (IRQ2).  Once the IRQ was changed, it was fairly simple to get VISA Server working.