what are alternatives to AxCWGPIB driver?

[B_Zenon]

using C# and an older NI AxCWGPIB, the NI driver/component appears to leak memory.  it works fine doing a couple of I/Os to gpib devices, but under real world testing with 100s of function calls per minute? it cannot handle it.  In a few hours GPIB calls that took no time to process take 10+ seconds to process.  the NI spy shows the individual transactions take 10, 20 or 60msec each or so, nothing unusual. 

Since there are virtually NO searchable tips on this, Im now guessing most everyone doesnt use this for regular GPIB I/O, perhaps its only used in a setup mode, only doing the searching for what devices are connected, but then  for the real world testing you use the REAL driver/component which is ...what?

What alternatives are there to connect a C# app to GPIB devices?  I have all the calls defined ":SOUR:FUNC VOLT"  etc... but need some kind of interface software/driver to talk to the GPIB devices, one that works under real world testing conditions.

NI must make SOME kind of component driver that works to talk to GPIB devices, but what is it???

tia

[Jason W]

Hey Tia,

If I understand your post correctly, you can use our NI-VISA driver to communicate with GPIB instruments.  All you have to have is the instruments string commands to read/write to the instrument.  The driver also installs C# examples that you can look at to help you get started.  Here is the link to the VISA driver download page.

I hope this helps!

Best regards,

Jason W
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[B_Zenon]

Thanks Jason

one of the main issues is using a setup whereby the Windows PC will keep running for extended periods of time, like months of non stop 24/7 testing?

what appears to be the obstacle here is keeping the Windows PC from loading up/losing resources until it simply freezes or shuts down.  connecting to gpib is relatively simple, sending out *IDN? and getting a response is one thing, having a gpib driver that can run fulltime is the challenge

(ps, tia is an acronym for thanks in advance, also means "aunt" in Espanol)

[Nick_D]

Hey B_Zenon,

Have you had a chance to look at the examples at the following location?

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\National Instruments\NI-488.2\Languages\DotNET1.1

Have you installed the GPIB driver as-well? NI-488.2. You should be able to find the driver at https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads.html

Have you had a chance to upgrade the driver that you're currently using? What version are you using by the way? What PCI-GPIB card are you using, and can it support a newer version of your GPIB driver.

Are you storing your results into an array? Or are you storing your results to a text file?

Can you make an example that reads a result, and displays it, but discards it afterwards? I'm curious if this will cause a memory leak in your system.

Regards,

Nick D.