Read Data from Agilent E4416A

[Mirco]

Hi.
I'm trying to communicate with a Power Meter Agilent E4416A through Labview.
I only need to get the measured value of power.
I've downloaded and installed IVI-COM and IVI-C drivers from Agilent web
site (installed all successfully), but in the block diagram, when I select
Instrument I/O, Instr Driver, the related Instrument E4416 does not appear.
I know that there is another way to use the drivers, throw activex modules,
but it seems not very simple...
The instrument is connected through GPIB port and is recognized from
hardware (I can see its address).
Is there any simple way to aquire the value that I can read from display?

Thanks a lot.

mirco

[Ray.R]

What you are describing already sounds complicated and it almost appears that you installed the wrong drivers.  Were the drivers specifically for Labview?

In any case, since you can communicate through GPIB, the first thing I would do is to interrogate the instrument using MAX (Measurement and Automation Explorer).

Find the instrument (it must be turned ON and connected bia GPIB to the PC).

Then send it a basic command *IDN?  and it should respond.  After that, you can try more commands and implement them in Labview.

RayR

[Mirco]

Thanks for the answer.
The drivers are also for labview, as you can see on this page:
http://www.home.agilent.com/upload/cmc_upload/All/driver_ivicom_RFPowerMeter_3_1_16_0_readme.htm
I will try to communicate with the instrument as you suggested to me.

mirco


"JoeLabView" <x@no.email> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:1214655005709-733746@exchange.ni.com...
> What you are describing already sounds complicated and it almost appears
> that you installed the wrong drivers.&nbsp; Were the drivers specifically
> for Labview?
> &nbsp;
> In any case, since you can communicate through GPIB, the first thing I
> would do is to interrogate the instrument using MAX (Measurement and
> Automation Explorer).
> Find the instrument (it must be turned ON and connected bia GPIB to the
> PC).
> &nbsp;
> Then send it a basic command *IDN?&nbsp; and it should respond.&nbsp;
> After that, you can try more commands and implement them in Labview.
> &nbsp;
> RayR

[Dennis_Knutson]

Do you know that there is a native LabVIEW driver? I would recomend that unless you really need the features of IVI and if you need IVI, I would recomend IVI-C and not IVI-COM. IVI-COM, imho, is just a pain to use. The native LabVIEW drivers will show up on your palette if you install them correctly and so will the IVI-C driver when you convert them to LabVIEW and place them in the correct location. IVI-COM drivers do not appear on a palette.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 06-29-2008 03:46 PM