Connecting instruments to Labview for remote control

[uwb-arnie]

Hello,

      I'm new to the forum so I apologize in advance if the question is obvious.... We are establishing a new undergraduate EE lab that includes a major donation of Tektronix instruments. Each of 12 lab benches has a Tek scope, Arbitrary Waveform Function generator, power supply and DMM. The scope and function generator have ethernet ports. We are able to remotely control the scope from Labview, but are having difficulty with the other instruments.

1- All of the instruments have Labview drivers installed in the appropriate directory.

2- The power supply is USB and the DMM is RS-232 with a cable from Tek that converts it to USB on COM3, 9600 baud.

3- When we open Labview we can see that Labview sees the instruments, but we don't know how to get the proper control and measurement interface up and running. We have no problem with the oscilloscpe, it just automatically came right up.

We actually can control the function generator with separate Tek software and the DMM with ASCII strings, but we need Labview to drive the power supply. Can someone send us a recipe on how to contol the instruments. Once we verify operation, we'll learn how to properly use Labview. I promise.

[KHartley]

UWB-Arnie, 

What is the power supplies model #? If you downloaded the drivers from the device net then it may have examples on how to communicate with it. 

Let me know what the model # is and I can look into it for you.

[uwb-arnie]

We have the following Tek instruments:

MSO3012: Works fine with Labview

AFG3022B: Labview sees it, we just can't control it.

DMM4020: RS232 to USB conector. Installed as COM3. We can communicate with it using terminal mode. Labview sees it as a device on COM3, it just doesn't know what it is.

PWS4205: USB Connection. Labview is the only way we have to contol it remotely but we can't get it connected so we can control it. I believe that Labview sees a USB device there.

We have a University of Washngton site license for Labview and I assume that includes support. Is there some way I can communicate with you directly

ABOUT THIS?

Arnie

[Dennis_Knutson]

What happens with the AFG3022? When you try to control it with one of the examples, what error code do you get?

An instrument connected to a com port is not supposed to be recognized. Since you see the com port, you can control it. You have to specify the com port as the VISA Resource Name and the driver has to support a serial interface.

What sort of USB device is seen for the power supply? Exactly how is it listed in MAX.

Expanding the Device and Interfaces screen in MAX (Measurement and Automation Explorer) and attaching a screen shot (png file please) would help understand your issues.

[uwb-arnie]

I'm not in the lab now so I'll have to hold your answer until I can sit down in the lab with the machines. I understand your comment about the serial port, but could you please be more specific about exactly what we need to do to associate the COM port to the driver. Something step-by-step would be very helpful to us.

Thanks.

arnie

[Dennis_Knutson]

On the front panel of the VI is a control called VISA Resource Name. Click on the pull-down on the right side of this. You will see a list of available resources. Select the com port that the instrument is connected to.