install plug and play instrument in os x

[excalibur313]

Hi Everyone,

I recognize that this is a newbie type question, but I have been unable to find a complete answer anywhere.  I have a power supply that I want to connect via an RS-232 port to a mac.  I install Labview 8.6 and using VISA I can see the connected serial port -> USB converter.  I looked online and found plug and play drivers and put them my

 Applications/National Instruments/LabVIE 8.6/instr.lib/

folder per instructions I found on this page. The problem for me comes when I want to actually use the power supply.  The instructions say that I should be find the palette via: Functions>>Instrument I/O>>Instrument Drivers.  But I can't seem to find the functions in the toolbar above or on the welcome screen.  Where exactly is this?  I tried searching for the instrument drivers palette in the help but it isn't really clear about how I can bring this up.  I tried looking on the controls or tools palette but I don't see my installed pallete and the closest I see to instrument I/O is classic I/O which doesn't have what I want.  I just basically want to use labview to output arbitrary currents as a function of time so I can create heating ramps and stuff like that.

Thanks so much for your help,

Stephen

[NathanT]

Hello Stephen,

       What model of power supply are you using?

Please make sure that when you extracted the instrument driver you did not create an extra level of folders.  That would cause the function pallets to either not show up or show up incorrectly.

The Function pallet is what appears when you are on the Block Diagram of a VI and right-click:

You can then navigate to the Instrument I/O pallet and find the Instrument Driver pallet.  If it is not there, please post a screenshot.

Cheers,

NathanT