USB device name not shown in VISA control

[brock85]

Dear All,

I'm trying to control a lighting controller unit which used as a configurable power supply for a LED light panel.

The model is TMS Lite TMS-LC-15-4CH-A1.

It is not a popular device i guess so it doesn't have a labview driver like Agilent, GwInSTEK etc.

As usual i install the usb driver and demo software then i'm able to control the device using demo software.

Then i open my labview 2012 and select a VISA open, i created a VISA control and i expect the device ID to be shown for me to select. (Just like what i usually do for most of the agilent devices).

However this time it does not shown.

I'm stuck and i really hope someone can help.

Thanks!!!

[RChoudhary]

Hi brock85,

have you installed VISA drivers separately? please check the following link if you haven't installed VISA drivers.

http://joule.ni.com/nidu/cds/view/p/id/2914/

[brock85]

Hi RChoudhary,

Thanks a lot for the reply.

I have installed visa driver in my pc.

And if i use my other instruments like Agilent U2723A, it has no problem to show the device name at visa control.

Does it mean this device driver is not able to be read by LabVIEW VISA?

Do i have to create my own VISA driver using the National Instruments driver wizard?

[RChoudhary]

Hi brock85,

have you checked your instrument in NI Max, weather it is detecting there or not.

if drivers arer not available for your instrument, you need to create them using NI driver wizard but first thing is VISA should detect your instrument's  COM port. 

[brock85]

Hi RChoudhary,

No. NI Max and VISA also cannot detect the device's COM Port.

When i checked device manager, the device is located under "Human Interface Device" --> "HID-compliant Device".

I cannot check the com port number if it is under "Human Interface Device", can i?

[RChoudhary]

Hi brock 85,

i dont know much about your problem, may be someone expert can guide you better, but you can go through following link if this helps you

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/8FD4C1DC8E80637E862572EF00784338

[Hooovahh]

Is it possible that the demo software you got to work isn't releasing the COM port resource?  Have you tried rebooting the computer, and then looking in MAX and the VISA control for the COM port?  Doing this after running the demo software may prevent it from being found if the demo software doesn't release the resource.

[Dennis_Knutson]

You are simply wasting your time. A HID device is NOT supposed to show in MAX and it is NOT emulating a serial port. Use the call library function node to interface to the HID dll. Also, if you are thinking about using the VISA wizard, think twice. It is a long and difficult process that requires considerable low level informatiopn from the vendor.

[0utlaw]

+1 to Dennis - HID-compliant USB-RAW devices are not USBTMC/VISA-addressable out of the box.  It is possible to use VISA, but the work required on the back end is probably not worthwhile in your case.  If you must use VISA, I'd get in touch with the manufacturer and see if they already have this implemented.

Regards,

[brock85]

Thanks for all your comments. I have called the vendor last night and able to get the DLL file from them.

Now i'm able to control the device by using the call library node to the DLL.

Cons of this will be the DLL directory must always be somewhere in the C drive and makes my program less flexible when copied to other PC.

Now i'm trying to do the same thing with TCP as the device has a TCP port too.