visa doesn't find gpib instrument on Mac running labview 7.1

[rldetwiler]

I've got a G5 Mac with a newly installed GPIB-USB-HS controller. GPIB Explorer sees the controller and 'NI-VISA Configuration' appears to see my instrument (an HP-34970a on channel 9) in that it shows GPIB0::9::INSTR. However, when I try to run a simple vi to communicate with the instrument I get a communication error "VISA:  (Hex 0xBFFF0011) Insufficient location information or the device or resource is not present in the system." If I run 'Find_VISA_Resource' in labview, it only finds two serial devices and not my GPIB device"  I've also found that if I call VISA_Find_Resource that only two serial devices are returned and not my GPIB instrument.

I've also confirmed that if I change the address on the instrument, that the change is immediately reflected in 'NI-VISA Configuration' which appears to confirm that there is communication between the two.

Any thoughts as to why labview (7.1 on Mac OS 10.5.7 with NI-488.2 2.5 and NI-VISA 4.5) might not be seeing my GPIB instrument?

[Justin_E]

Hello,

If you're using NI-488.2 version 2.5.5, LabVIEW version 8.2 and above are unfortunately the only versions that support this driver (referenced in the readme) . This is likely why you can see your instrument in MAX, but can't use it in LabVIEW, since LabVIEW is version 7.1. 

Message Edited by Justin_E on 07-15-2009 02:11 PM

[JasonSmith]

The Readme actually says:

This driver version has been tested with the following software:
 
NI-VISA 4.4
LabVIEW 8.2, 8.5, and 8.6

This driver should work with older versions of the software, but we 
have not tested against older versions. You can install NI-VISA 4.4 
from the NI-VISA directory on the NI-488.2 CD.

I would recommend installing the newest version of NI-488.2 and trying it out. Older versions did not support  GPIB-USB-HS. Also note that the 2.5.5 driver will not support your G5 on OS 10.5, you will need to download the NI-488.2 2.5.6 Beta driver in order to support PowerPC with 10.5.

-Jason S.

[LarryO]

I am having the same issue.

I can see my instrument as well when running Visa Config and GPIB Explorer.

I am using an Intel based iMac 10.5.7 with NI-488.2  2.5.6b0 and Visa 4.5.

Was there any solution found or will it not work with LV 7.1?

[Justin_E]

Hey Larry,

As Jason said, the readme says that older versions SHOULD support the driver, but we haven't tested it so we can't guarantee that it will work with any version of LabVIEW before 8.2

[LarryO]

Thanks Justin,

It would be nice to know that NI did test it with 7.1 and found it not to work as well.