What's it take to get LabView up and running?

[no_wires]

Hello. I'm new to LabView and in the process of learning what I can about it by working through a couple of training books. Anyway, what do I need to get LabView 6.1 to control Agilent and Anritsu test equipment -- specifically voltage supplies, a network analyzer, and a spectrum analyzer. I presently have a GPIB card in the computer. Is any other hardware required to get this operational? Where do I find drivers? Thanks for any response.

[John Lum]

Assuming you've got cables to connect your GPIB card to your instruments, I don't think you need any additional hardware in order to use LabVIEW to automate the control of the instruments.

I'll assume that your GPIB card is installed and functional if not, try its self-tests or go to http://www.ni.com/support/gpib/ for help.

To install LabVIEW instrument drivers for your instruments, go to http://ni.com/idnet and browse or search your way to the drivers you need. This will give you a suite of LabVIEW VIs to programmatically control your instruments from LabVIEW.

After you download and install the drivers (instruction links on the driver pages), you can get up to speed by examining the Application Example that will likely appear in the palettes for your i
nstruments. There's also a CD available of all of our instrument drivers; you can request one from your NI sales engineer.

As a final note, the LabVIEW Basics I training course (http://ni.com/training) does an excellent job of teaching this topic (the final day of the course) as well as teaching LabVIEW programming fundamentals.

Best of luck,
John Lum
National Instruments

[KBersch]

I'm controlling a lot of Agilent equipment with LabVIEW via GPIB. It's not very hard but there is a learning curve. Agilent has drivers on their website for most of their equipment. NI's web site has lots of drivers and links to many other sites with drivers.

I agree that you should take LabVIEW Basics I. You should also take Basics II. They're usually offered back-to-back and you get a discount for taking them in the same week. Those two classes will give you a great start at LabVIEW. The best thing to do after that is start using what you learned.

Kelly Bersch
Anadigm