How to set up a computer, ni DAQ board, a power supply and a picoammeter together

[Akatsuki]

Hello,

I am a beginner regarding  the set up and configuration of component.  I am working in a lab and my task is to connect the following component:

national instrument DAQ board

Keithley 485 picoammeter (data Aqcuisition)

Power Supply (voltage source) Keithley 248

and a computer (duh...)

I would like to know if it is possible.  Right now, I am trying to figure out the model of the DAQ board.  But I would like to know how I should set it up in order to make it work.

Thanks for your time,

Noel

[Akatsuki]

Actually, I don't even know the model of the DAQ board, I would like to know if it would work, if not, which daq board should I purchase knowing that I am looking for the cheapest one.

Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

Afaik, the Keithley instruments are controlled by GPIB (IEEE-488) so you would also need a GPIB controller. What kind of NI DAQ board do you have? If it's really an NI GPIB board (i.e. PCI-GPIB), then you will first install the device drivers. If you need a new copy or what to upgrade, you can let the latest here. Make sure you install both NI-488 and NI-VISA. NI-488 is a lower level driver that does the basic GPIB bus communication. NI-VISA is an API that allows you to use a common programming interface to GPIB, Serial, USB, and Ethernet instruments. Most instrument drivers and application programs use VISA. There are instructions with the GPIB that tell you how to verify the board and drivers have been installed correctly. You set each instrument to a different GPIB address and then you test communication to each instrument. There are instrument drivers for each instrument that you can find by going to the Instrument Driver Network.

[Akatsuki]

Dear Denis,

Let say the current DAQ board cannot control the different Keithley devices.  How and where can I purchase a GPIB 488? is that the only thing that I will need besides the drivers (which I can dowload from the ni website)?

Thank you,

Noel

[Dennis_Knutson]

Pick the one you want from here. You'll also need GPIB cables (2) to go between the controller and the instruments. You can get those from NI or a number of other companies. The majority of cables we have right now are from L-Com. They have a bigger varieity of stypes and prices.

[Akatsuki]

What i know so far is that the daq board is 5 years old and there is nothing wrtitten on it.  The lab is using it as data aquisition with the keithley picoammeter using testpoint.

[Dennis_Knutson]

What is the "DAQ" board connected to and what is the Keithley connected to? If there's a big fat cable between the "DAQ" board and the Keithley, the "DAQ" board is probably a GPIB controller. What does windows device manager say is installed in the pc?

[Akatsuki]

I found out what the card was, it is a PCI-488 GPIB Interface, the manufacturer is Capital Equip. Corp.  I have installed the card on my computer and install their driver.  Now I have plug in the Keithley picoammeter 485 on it and would like to create an interface between the device and labview.

I have download their example driver here http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E90D5659CE034080020E74861 but it is not working (when I run it, nothing happens)

[Dennis_Knutson]

I've never used a CEC board with LabVIEW. You might want to contact CEC.

[LV_Pro]

I've glanced at the drivers that you posted. Boy are they old! There are a few possible reasons you aren't seeing any communications. First thing is to determine what GPIB address your picoammeter is set for. I am not familiar with this instrument so I can't tell you how to check. If you have the Measurement and Automation Explorer installed (it may have been installed with LabVIEW) you can see if it sees the GPIB card. I don't know if it will, it won't see DAQ cards from other vendors (than National Instruments), but I'm not sure with a PCI-based GPIB. If it does you can then try a scan for instruments, which, if we are lucky, will show the meter and what address it is set for. The driver that you downloaded is set for 22, so you will have to either set the instrument to that address, or change it in the program. It is possible that the instrument, if it has a display, may show the address when starting up, or they maybe some "dip switch" settings on the back (two common methods used on instruments).

I would recommend, ultimately, that you order a National Instruments GPIB card. They (NI) are pretty much the leader/experts in GPIB interfaces and it makes writing LabVIEW code a lot easier. I would also rewrite the drivers to use the "VISA" GPIB code interface as well. The drivers aren't particularly complicated and would be pretty easy to rewrite into something that is a little more in line with the current code (they have "copyright National Instruments 1993" on the front panels so they may have been originally written at NI, but by todays standards they aren't written very well. 1993 was pretty early in the evolution of both LabVIEW and LabVIEW programmers and a lot has changed!

P.M.