Newbie GPIB & OS questions

[Steve J. Noll]

I'm about to purchase equipment for my first LabVIEW project.
This will involve gain & I/V testing of photodiode arrays.
I'm planning on using a Keithley 2700 multimeter with a 7703
40-channel multiplexer card to measure several millivolt-level
voltages and a Keithley 248 high voltage power supply for the needed
1KV to 2KV variable bias. Both instruments GPIB controlled.
I'm figuring on purchasing the latest LabVIEW Full Development system
for Windows.

My questions are... should I get Keithley's GPIB card as it will
be talking to all Keithley equipment, or should I get NI's GPIB card
as the software will be theirs - or, does it matter?
And... is there a best version of Windows to use, or one to avoid?

Thanks,

Steve J. Noll | Ventura Calif
ornia | sjnoll@big-list.com
| The Used High-Tech Equipment Dealer Directory
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[Lab Viewer]

It depends on your plans for future development. Therefore,
Regarding the software,
- If that's all you want to do, you can use XLinx software that comes with Keithley's equipment via RS-232 or GPIB (in this case, buy the card from Keithley too)
- If you want flexibility and power with new and difficult projects ahead, LabVIEW is a good choice.
- A cheaper development solution is TestPoint, especially if you are used to Visual Basic programming style.
Regarding the interface,
- RS 232 is the low cost solution.
- If you choose GPIB, it's better to have the card from NI when using LabVIEW (and the one from Keithley when using TestPoint). So, it's important to assure that the card match the software rather than the instrument.
Regarding the OS,
- don't s
pend extra money on other operating system … use what you have, it should be fine
- probably win 98 is a good choice in order to avoid some win95 (age) and NT/2000 (architecture) related problems

Hope this helps