have you an example of labview for HP e1326B?

[yi]

Thank you, Marni,

Using MAX, I found some information as follow:
-----
Instrument0
Primary Address = 9
Secondary Address = 96
Identification: HP E1300A,0,A,07.00

Instrument1
Primary Address = 9
Secondary Address = 99
Identification: HP E1326B,0,A,05.00
------
If run the HP E1326 driver example VI, the logic address and GPIB address are required to determine. I am wondering how to determine both address?
when run the example VI, the err:1220 appears in the block diagram. What the possible problem and how to solve it?

Thank you very much.

[Marni]

Hello Yi. GPIB address and logical address are not terms that are used with the VISA or GPIB VIs that come with LabVIEW, so they must be specific for this instrument driver. I downloaded the driver and ran into difficulties because I don't have Open VXI Instrument.vi. Double click on the Initialize VI and take a look at the block diagram. As you can see, the logical address and gpib address are inputs to the Open VXI Instrument.vi. Double click on this VI. Keep double clicking on VIs until you get to the VI that actually uses the addresses. This will tell you what it is looking for. Hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Marni S.
National Instruments

[yi]

Hi Marni,

1. I got to the last VI, until which I can not open any more block diagram, and tried to input the logic address as from 1 to 9, but the error meesage is still there. It looks there is no any correct communication between the instrument(HP E1326 multimeter) and the computer via the GPIB interface. What address I need to input in the initialize diagram?

2. I will use 8 strain gages, but it looks there is no any channel option in the block diagram if i use the instrument driver (such as "Initialize" and "Read Meas" items). How can I deal with it if the instrument driver
can work?

3. I tried using "Instrument I/O Assistant" to figure out the communication with the instruments. At the Quary and Parse step, if entering "*IDN?" command, there responsed the instrument name and four token items.
If inputing "MEAS:DC?" command, there was no correct response and a timeover error message appeared. I wonder how to deal with this problem? Based on the introduction of the Labview reference book, I guess if get a correct response from the MEAS:DC? command, I can successfully read required data from the instruments. If I can do that, how to set up the channel option by using "Instrument I/O Assistant" is my another question.

Thank you very much!

[Marni]

Hello Yi. It seems like you are having troubles with the instrument driver, so I recommend that you just use the Instrument I/O Assistant. There is a good tutorial called "Accelerate Instrument Control with Interactive Tools and LabVIEW" that explains how to configure the Instrument I/O Assistant.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/8e2f0a10f99519268625680400644435?OpenDocument#9

Once you open it click on Instrument I/O Assistant. As for why MEAS:DC? is not working, check the manual for your instrument. Make sure that it accepts all SCPI commands. Also, try increasing your timeout in the Instrument I/O Assistant. Please let me know if you have any more questions. Have a great day!

Marni S.
National Instruments

[yi]

Hi marni,

Now I try to modify the instrument driver and at the same time try to use VISA to control the instrument. IF using "VISA Find Resorce", the "return count" is 6, and the "find list" is
0 ASRL1::INSTR
1 ASRL2::INSTR
2 ASRL10::INSTR
3 GPIB0::INTFC
4 GPIB0::9:0:
5 GPIB0::9:3:

It looks VISA can control the instruments. Now my problem is how to use the VISA/Labview control the measurement from 8 channels ((HP E1356A 8-channel Starin Gage Multiplexer Module + HP E1326B 5 1/2 Digit Multimeter Module + HP E1300A Mainframe + NI GPIB))?

If using "VISA WRITE" VI, it has "write buffer" and "VISA resource name" items;
If using "VISA GPIB COMMAND" VI, it has "command" and "VISA resource name" items.
I am wondering what's the difference of the two VIs? Where can I input the measurment command including the instrument address and the channel address?

Could you please give me some application examples which use instrument driver(may not for HP E1326) to control the measurement at different channels and examples use VISA to do same thing?

Thanks a lot!
Boss ask me figure out the program before next week, faint.........

[yi]

Hi marni,

Now I try to modify the instrument driver and at the same time try to use VISA to control the instrument. IF using "VISA Find Resorce", the "return count" is 6, and the "find list" is
0 ASRL1::INSTR
1 ASRL2::INSTR
2 ASRL10::INSTR
3 GPIB0::INTFC
4 GPIB0::9:0:
5 GPIB0::9:3:

It looks VISA can control the instruments. Now my problem is how to use the VISA/Labview control the measurement from 8 channels ((HP E1356A 8-channel Starin Gage Multiplexer Module + HP E1326B 5 1/2 Digit Multimeter Module + HP E1300A Mainframe + NI GPIB))?

If using "VISA WRITE" VI, it has "write buffer" and "VISA resource name" items;
If using "VISA GPIB COMMAND" VI, it has "command" and "VISA resource name" items.
I am wondering what's the difference of the two VIs? Where can I input the measurment command including the instrument address and the channel address?

Could you please give me some application examples which use instrument driver(may not for HP E1326) to control the measurement at different channels and examples use VISA to do same thing?

Thanks a lot!
Boss ask me figure out the program before next week, faint.........

[RossC]

Pardon me for interrupting mid-conversation, but looking through the HP/Agilent instrument models listed, this system appears to be a VXI system. How is this system interfaced to the GPIB bus? Are you using an Agilent E1406A GPIB-VXI controller? If so, you may need some additional software from Agilent to correctly address these boards for VISA communication in NI's software. From my limited experience with the E1406A, I recall a software package called the Agilent I/O Libraries. During installation, the option to be the "secondary VISA" (with NI-VISA being the primary VISA) should be selected. You may wish to contact Agilent for details on this software if this is the case. Also, if you are using a GPIB-VXI controller, the instruments should show up in the [National Instruments] VISA Interactive Control as GPIB-VXI resources as opposed to GPIB resources after the proper software is installed. Have a good day!

RossC

[yi]

Thank you RossC,
The instruments I use to measure strain are HP E1300A Mainframe, HP E1326B 5 1/2 Digit Multimeter Module, HP E1356A 8-channel Starin Gage Multiplexer Module and NI' AT-GPIN/TNT board. I am sorry I do not clearly understand what you wrote, because I am a new user of the labview software and these instruments.

I have tried using VISA to control the measurement, please find the VI with this poster. I inputed "MEAS: VOLT:DC?(@100)" in the write buffer. This command string is got from the HP E1326B Manuel, by which the program ask the instrument to measure the DC voltage at channel 100.

The program running with an error result. Using Probe following the VISA READ, got message:
Error -1073807339 occured at VISA READ in visa_command.vi
possible reasons:
Visa: timeout expired before operation completed.

I appreciated any suggestion on this trouble.

[JohnM 64]

Hi Yi,

I took a look at your program, and the basic program looks good to me. The timeout error indicates that the program did not receive any information after waiting the time period you specified. There are two reasons that this could be happening that I can think of on first glance:

1. The VISA Resource Name input is not pointing to the correct instrument
2. The command used as a string input to the VISA Write is not recognized by the instrument

I recommend checking these two things and ensuring that the proper inputs are being supplied. What VISA Resource Name are you inputing?

Also, I am in agreement with Ross in that I am curious exactly how your entire system is set up. The devices you listed are a VME/VXI mainframe and some VXI devices. In order to communicate with these devices, then you either need to have a controller in the VXI chassis with your devices that is hooked up to a keyboard and a monitor, or some other method to communicate from the computer to the VXI chassis (like the GPIB/VXI interface that Ross mentioned). How exactly are you connected from your computer to the VXI devices? That will affect the method in which we should communicate with the multimeter and strain gage modules.

John M
Applications Engineer

[yi]

After checking my measurement system and reviewing the labview and Agilent websites, it looks I need Agilent I/O Libraries to make the labview program control the HP/Aligent instrument.

Right now I have a HP Universal Instrument Driver CD which includes:
HP VXIplus&play Drivers;
HP plus&play Rack and Stack Instrument Drivers;
ScPI instrument Drivers;
HP VXI installation Consulatant (HP VIC);

I am wondering whether it is the HP I/O library I need. If it is, because the drivers in this CD are for Win3.1/95/NT, do I need new version drivers for WinXP?

Thanks a lot!