Steps to configure TDS7404

[Mathan]

Here is my system configuration:

Scope: Tektronix TDS 7404

OS:      Windows 98 Se (not possible to upgrade to 2000 or XP since all our internal tests needs to be done in 98 only)

Scope is connected in the network.

Software version available - LabVIEW 8.6

Additional software - LabVIEW Signal express 3.0 (demo version downloaded from net)

(don't know whether this is required or not)

Kindly suggest me what other additional utilities and drivers do i have to download and install in the scope. Shall i need NI VISA?

As a next step after successfully able to communicate with the instrument through LabVIEW, i need to control the scope from another PC that is having Windows XP or another PC with Win 98 whatever is possible. What are the drivers and softwares needs to be downloaded?

Kindly give some step by step procedure to install what are all the necessary drivers i need to install.

Thanks and Best Regards,

Mathan

[THN]

Hi Mathan,

I don't know if you have the instrument driver already. But here's the steps to get them: tools -> instrumentation -> find instrument drivers -> login -> search the brand of your instrument and download it, it should be something like tktds7xx. After it, just open them from labview or open it from something like this: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 8.6\instr.lib

Hope it helps.:)

[Mathan]

Hai,

Thanks for looking into this. I think i have to explain bit more. I don't have any basic idea about the scope. I already downloaded tktds7xx from the website. My scope contains Win 98 Se so i can't able to open this llb's with the LabVIEW 8.6 version. That's why i installed 8.6 LabVIEW on another test PC having XP. I am totally confused how to proceed?

Kindly advice me from the start. Please ask me more questions if i am missing something.

Thanks for your patience

Mathan

Message Edited by Mathan on 07-16-2009 04:32 AM

[THN]

I'm possibly not the best person to help you out with this, since i'm also fresh on LV. But try to understand this example that i received from a much more experienced user. You will need to do a VI, that includes those steps like in the example, by another words, you will need the innitialize, setup and read data processes.

[THN]

Still, the best way to see what's the best feature for your application, is to go: Instrument I/O -> Instr Drivers -> Tktds7xx VIs, and see what options are allowed..but you surely can find there what you need.

Hope that it helps. 😐

[muks]

Will these details help?

[Mathan]

Thanks for all the help guys. I will try and get back with more details little later.

[muks]

You probably might have this already

[Mathan]

These are the steps we have followed,

 

1) In Tektronix TDS 7404 Oscilloscope having win98 OS, installed NI VISA (visa301full.exe) since that is the latest version for Windows 98.

 

2) Launched NI-VISA server.

 

3) Launched Measurement & Automation Explorer and the following steps were done.

 

Right click “Devices and Interfaces” and select “Create New”.

 

In the next screen select “VISA TCP/IP Resource” and click next.

 

Select “Raw Socket” and click next.

 

Enter 10.151.50.39 (ip address of scope) for Hostname and 3537 for Port Number.

 

Click next and in the next step enter an alias for the instrument. Just click finish.

 

4) Launched the TekVISA configuration (Resource Manager).

 

In the Hostname section, entered the ip address of the client PC and clicked add.

  

5) In client PC having winXP, installed NI VISA 4.5 (visa450full.exe).

 

6) Launched NI-VISA server.

 

9) Repeated steps 3 and 4 in the client PC. The ip address of the scope was given in the Remote Hostname.

 The instrument name is by default configured as “TCPIP::10.151.50.39::INSTR”

[Mathan]

Upto last weekend, everything worked fine and some sample LabVIEW programs from tktds7k llb has also been executed without any problems.

But this morning, everything went wrong. Even in the scope, the instrument is not detecting.

In MAX, when again opening a new TCP/IP resource and giving the same ip address and port no, it is telling "successfully opened a VISA session to TCPIP::10.151.50.39::3537::SOCKET". But under VISAIC, the device is not found.

In client PC also the instrument is not getting detected.

Kindly guide me where it went and how to proceed.

Thanks,

Mathan