Time Expiration Error with LabView

[phasors]

Hi,

I'm having trouble communicating with my instrument (Tektronix TDS380) using LabView. As someone new to LabView, I decided to follow the Instrument I/O Assistant demo on the NI website. The following steps were taken:

-Opened LabView7.0_Express
-Clicked New and then the INPUT icon
-Selected I/O Assistant
-Selected Instrument (GPIB)
-Selected Add Step and chose Query and Parse
-Typed in the command 'sens:data?' and clicked RUN

When I selected run, I received the following error:
Timeout expired before operation is computed. VISA status code bfff0015

I have the IVI driver installed and do not know what else could be causing the error. Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

[JenK]

Hi,

You could be getting a timeout error for a couple of reasons. First of all, make sure that your instrument is connected to your GPIB card. A timeout error will occur if you send a command to your instrument and you are waiting for a response but do not get one. You might need to increase the time to wait for a response. Also, if you are sending a command that your instrument does not respond to you will get a timeout error. Make sure that you check your instrument's user manual for commands specific to your instrument. There is a LabVIEW driver specific for this instrument that you can download by clicking here. Save the file in this directory:
C:\Program Files\National Instruments\LabVIEW 7.0\instr.lib
If you save it here you can access the functions in LabVIEW by going to the Block Diagram, All Functions Palette>>Instrument I/O>>Instrument Drivers. This driver should already have the appropriate commands for your instrument. You can use the Context Help to explain what the functions do. The activate the Context Help press ctrl+h, then scroll over a VI to display the information.

I would look at the TKTDS 3xx Getting Started.vi first. These VI's should get you going. Please repost if you have further questions.

JenK