waveform generators

[jl294]

Hello. Im on a student placement at a physics department and im learning Labview from scratch so apologies if i ask too many questions! The aim is to control an arbitrary waveform generator via Labview. The Generator is to hook up to a network hub via USB which is on a network with the PC. The PC registers the generator however Labview does not. Obviously I need a decent code on labview to get it to work but theoretically if I did have one, how would I go about registering it with the generator. I added NI-DAQmx driver which should help the cause i'd imagine..

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

DAQmx has nothing at all to do with things.

Install NI-VISA and then go into MAX. Right click on Devices and Interfaces and select Create New>TCP/IP Resource. Follow the instructions. You need to first find out if the instrument is VXI-11 compliant.

[Albert.Geven]

What model function generator are you trying to control by LabVIEW?

And why are you using DAQassistant?

[jl294]

hmmm I did as you suggested. It found 2 other devices (both of which are other generators installed prior to this). I still cant find the generator I need. I've downloaded LXI discovery manager to pinpoin the IP of the generator but again its not showing it. Its only showning the IP of the others. I might have done something wrong somewhere, not sure where though. I downloaed god knows how many different drivers etc.. The generator is definately connected properly though. I've been able to make contact with it on my PC just not with the labview program itself. Sorry for the rant!

[jl294]

Using a TTi TGA12100 series generator. I was given the NI-DAQmx driver software so i thought I would need to install this to actually make use the generator....

[Andy.G]

Hi jl294,

Don’t worry mate you’ve made a good start and your thinking along the right lines. So firstly like the Dennis mentioned you will need the VISA driver as this is what LabVIEW uses to interface with serial instruments and also you will need an instrument driver for the device. I have gone to the trouble of finding both for you (not sure which TTi device so I have all three):

NI VISA Driver:

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2251/lang/en

TGA12101 Driver:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=15103

TGA12102 Driver:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=15104

TGA12104 Driver:

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.model_page?p_model_id=15105

You will find that whichever TTi instrument driver you install, it will contain a zip file with an VI library inside, this will have examples and high level functions that allow you to interface with the instrument.

Good Luck! Have fun on the placement.