GPIB-USB-HS connected to sr245, iberr=EABO

[mtg]

Hi,

I am trying to use a GPIB-USB-HS to communicate with a SR245.   When using  measurement and automation explorer (version 4.2.1.3001) I am able to see the device, its primary address and I am able to write to it.  I am unable to read from it. No matter what command or termination characters I use (\r, \n, EOI) I always receive the EABO timeout error.  This is an older device which doesn't respond to  "*IDN?".  I have looked through a number of older discussion forums on this topic but so far the solutions don't work. 

Thanks,

Margo

[Chris_R.]

Hi Margo,

Have you tried using the SR245 prebuilt driver for this device?  It can be found by clicking here.  If this driver does not work for you, then my suspicion is that the instrument is not working or not configured properly.  Make sure your instrument does not have the same primary address as the controller.  By default, NI GPIB devices usually are set to 0 as their primary address.  The GPIB bus will only allow one device to have any given address.  Also, make sure your instrument is powered on since the bus will not see it if it is not powered on.

Try this and post back the results.

Have a great day!

[juanni]

Margo,

    Did you solve your problem?  I have a similar problem with my early 1980's sr245.   I can control it in the Max "communicate with instrument function" (though I have to use a semicolon followed by \r at the end of each line... try querying the command: "?1;\r" minus the quotes), but can't get the labview instrument driver to work.  I am afraid that I will have to gpib program it myself unless someone can enlighten with a simpler solution (i.e. change some option in the driver?).  You also have to place a 270 pF cap across two terminals on one of the chips if your unit is old.  This whole mess is fairly irksome.  Obviously, that instrument driver is not particularly robust.  Oh, and I think that that driver requires you to set the board address to 6 using the dips on the board.  Jonathan

[Brian F.]

Hello. 

Thank you for posting to the NI Discussion Forums. 

I am sorry to hear that you are having some issues with using the instrument driver.  My understanding is that you are using the Stanford Research sr245250 instrument and communicating with it via a GPIB-USB-HS device.  Is this correct?  Also, you are able to communicate with it in MAX, but when it comes to using the instrument driver located at:

Stanford Research sr245250

http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E9335659CE034080020E748...

you are unable to get the functionality that you want.  What version of LabVIEW are you using?  Also, what type of behavior are you seeing?  Is the LabVIEW VI throwing an error?  If so, what is the error code?  If it isn't throwing an error, does the program hang at some point in the program or does it exit the program gracefully?  In these situations, it is always useful to use highlight execution mode in LabVIEW so you can see where the program is having problems.  Combine this with probes and indicators placed strategically in your program and we could narrow down the problem spot in the application fairly quickly. 

Please let me know the results of these tests and the answers to the questions posed above, and I will be happy to help you until we figure out what is going on. 

Have a great day!

Brian F

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[margo]

Hi Jonathan and Brian,
I was unable to get the prebuilt driver to work for this device. In looking though some really old discussion forums on the sr245 I came across a labview vi that somewhat worked for the sr245. I didn't have to do any of the suggested modifications to the device (like inserting a capacitor) which was nice. I have attached the current labview vi that works with my sr245. It is really basic and my programing skills are quite limited so please excuse anything that seems odd. I should note that the error light of the sr245 is always on. It dosen't seem to make a difference though, because I can get the data I need.
Margo