NI Max | Hardware Detection | Non NI Instruments

[MCKR_1009]

Hi,

When new NI hardware is connected, It will be listed in NI Max. 

• Will NI Max detects instruments from other vendors like Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Tektronix and so on? If not what are the cases where it doesn't detect?
• Will I be able to add simulated instruments related to Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Tektronix and so on? 
• Will NI Max detects the instrument connected to a PC independent of the port to which the instruments are connected to?
• Finally, how will NI Max lists the connected instruments? Is it fine to rely on NI Max APIs to detect the connected hardware?

How is running an *IDN? command using VISA API different from using NI MAX APIs. Won't max automatically run this command in the background and get the details of the connected hardware?

[GerdW]

Hi mckr,

MAX ist NI's tool to handle all NI hardware, including communication ports like serial, GPIB or LAN/TCP...

It is not made to handle/configure devices from other companies. They most often come with their own tools.

The answer to this *IDN? request is not standardized, so why and how should MAX automatically use it?

[MCKR_1009]

I wanted to know [ programmatically]  the productid, vendor name of the hardware that is connected to a bench. So I decided to use NI Max/System Configuration Palette APIs for that [ Assuming that all the hardware devices are being listed in NI Max].

LabVIEW has a System Configuration Palette where there are APIs which can list the hardware connected to a bench. There is a LabVIEW example for showing the same "National Instruments\LabVIEW 2016\examples\nisyscfg\Show All Hardware.vi". I was thinking that the same functionality that is used for detecting hardware in MAX would have been used by these functions and vise versa.

Also in the help manual of those APIs, it has some functions to detect the bus type through which the hardware is connected. Which might also mean that any device which uses these bus types can be listed using those APIs.

My intention in using Max is not to configure a device. I just wanted to know the Product id, Vendor information of the hardware connected. I heard from my friends that NI Max is listing the names of the devices from the vendors like Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Tektronix and so on.

To summarise, I wanted to know the scope of the above function where it will fail or to what extent it can detect the hardware.

[MCKR_1009]

I wanted to know [ programmatically]  the productid, vendor name of the hardware that is connected to a bench. So I decided to use NI Max/System Configuration Palette APIs for that [ Assuming that all the hardware devices are being listed in NI Max].

LabVIEW has a System Configuration Palette where there are APIs which can list the hardware connected to a bench. There is a LabVIEW example for showing the same "National Instruments\LabVIEW 2016\examples\nisyscfg\Show All Hardware.vi". I was thinking that the same functionality that is used for detecting hardware in MAX would have been used by these functions and vise-versa.

Also in the help manual of those APIs, it has some functions to detect the bus type through which the hardware is connected. Which might also mean that any device which uses these bus types can be listed using those APIs

My intention in using Max is not to configure a device. I just wanted to know the Product id, Vendor information of the hardware connected. I heard from my friends that NI Max is listing the names of the devices from the vendors like Agilent, Keysight, Keithley, Tektronix and so on.

To summarise,

• I wanted to know the scope of the above function where it will fail to detect the connected hardware.
• Will I need to develop functions using VISA with a /IDN? command? Or Would this have been taken care by the system configuration APIs?