HP5316A vs HP5316B driver

[GaryLT]

Hello,

          I am using LabVIEW 7.1 and need to interface with a HP5316B frequency counter.  I can only find a HP5316A driver on the NI website.  Will this driver work with HP5316B?

Thanks,

Gary

[LV_Pro]

I don't know what changes the HP (Agilent) made between the A and B models of that instrument, but if the change wasn't to go from old style GPIB commands to SCPI complient ones it should work. One thing to check is the initialization routine though, sometimes the writer will do an ID of the instrument and expects back the device string, including rev letter (i.e. HP5316A vs HP5316B). To correct that usually only requires changing the comparison string to either match what you have, or drop the revision letter. Try the driver, using all the commands that you expect to use (vs all the possible commands, usually a much bigger superset) and see. If they won't work basically the instrument will just sit there, lights blinking, waiting for you to say something it understands. You may want to research at the Agilent site to try and determine what changed between revs.

P.M. 

[LV_Pro]

Also check in the existing driver to see if it is using VISA. I don't know if there are any drivers left on the NI site that use traditional GPIB calls, but those are pretty much phased out. If it is one of those it would pay to convert to the VISA calls.  I try to avoid IVI, opting to write a VISA driver rather than use an IVI. I'm still not convinced that IVI isn't a solution looking for a problem. That is, of course, my personal opinion, for what it is worth (usually about a $1.29 + tax)

P.M.