TekScope VISA

[slucas]

hello one and all,

i have a labview app that connects to a signal generator and a tektronix oscilloscope model TDS5104.  the scope has a tek native program called TekScope which has the native interface of VISA v2.01.  i was told by the tek support technician, who is very competent, that labview could run directly on the windows in the scope and that labview would interface with the scope through the already installed VISA support system.  he told me not to install the VISA that came with labview because TekScope would cease to work properly.

so i did that, i installed labview 8.2 on the scope and did not install the GPIB or VISA drivers that came with labview.  TekScope is still working, however, Measurement&Automation does not see the VISA already in the scope/computer and thus probably can not interface with the scope, even though the scope and computer are nearly the same computer.  so, how can i get labview 8.2 to use the VISA drivers that came native on the scope so that i can use my labview app directly on the scope?

thank you in advance.

lucas

[Meghan R]

Hello Lucas,

Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) should not see the scope or VISA unless it is NI-VISA, but that shouldn't hinder you in using LabVIEW to communitcate via VISA with your scope.  (There is an exception with some Agilent boards or VISA USB instruments and they may be recognized in MAX.) The VISA that is installed with your scope should use a VISA dll and that is what LabVIEW is looking for with those VIs.

I'd recommend doing a repair of the driver and if that doesn't fix your issue, uninstall and reinstall your scope VISA, to be sure that the VISA driver is there and has not been overwritten.  Are you getting any error codes when you try to communicate?  If so, and the reinstall does not fix it, what are the errors and error codes that you see?

Good Luck!

Meghan
Applications Engineer

[slucas]

hello megan,

i don't think the VISA v2 of the scope is damage or absent because there is a VISA icon in the windows system tray.  clicking on the icon brings up the VISA status window and it shows the scope on it list of devices.  the TekScope software application uses this VISA interface to provide the user with a front-end to the hardware of the scope itself, and that TekScope software is working fine. 

so the VISA installed on the scope for the scope is still working and present.  is there any trick to getting MAX or labview to recognize that VISA dll that you spoke of?  the thing is that MAX does not have a VISA interface under the Devices listing at all, and thus it does not see that driver or the scope under that driver.  make sense or perhaps i am missing a critical point.

lucas

[Meghan R]

Hello Lucas,

Like I stated in my previous post, MAX will not recognize the VISA dll as this dll is a third party (Tek) driver. This means that MAX will not have a VISA interface under Devices and Interfaces or under Software, since you do not have NI-VISA installed. LabVIEW should be able to use the third party dll however.  You should have a visa32.dll file inC:\WINDOWS\system32 folder.  Your version of VISA would have installedthat file, and LabVIEW will use that file.  If the dll for the tek version of VISA is named anything else, let me know.

Thanks,

Meghan
Applications Engineer

[slucas]

i have also verified that the visa32.dll is in the \winnt\system32 directory, however, MAX does not show any of the VISA components.  i have made a very simple test vi with a VISA resource, an open, write, read, and close and it did get the *IDN? from the scope.  so great, even though MAX does see it, the VISA resource in labview allows for the connection.

thank you for your help.

lucas