ivi configuration of serial settings

[Sir_Mutt]

I'm using IVI drivers to control an Agilent 33401A DMM.  My question is how to change the serial settings for the IVI driver.  This DMM is on COM5 so I linked my DMM logical name to COM5 in the driver sessions.  When I go to Serial & Parallel ports, I can see my COM5 settings.  I made a dummy LabVIEW application that just initializes, takes a reading, then closes the session.  It works fine.  But, if I want to change any settings, things fall to pieces.  First I changed the serial baud rate in MAX for COM5 from 9600 to 4800 to see if it would not work as I expected.  The problem is it worked just fine.  I tried changing a number of setting in MAX and when that still kept working when it shouldn't have, I even changed in Windows devices.  LabVIEW kept working without issue.  I then tried to change the DMM baud rate to 4800 and get communications to work.  I couldn't.  I rebooted, unplugged, restarted MAX, restarted LabVIEW, and every other stop/restart/reboot you can possibly imagine.  Then when I tried going back to 9600 baud, everything was still not working.  When I say not working, the DMM always has a communication error.  After a whole lot of hair pulling and crazy, I managed to get it to communicate at 9600 baud again without error.  But again, when I try to change settings in MAX for the serial port, nothing works.  it seems like it just gets locked into one setting and I can't change it.

If just using VISA, I could use configure settings to get everything the way it needs to be.  Ultimately, I need to be able to configure the settings for the IVI session programmatically in LabVIEW.  why don't these changes seem to do anything?  and, how can I change them programmatically for an IVI session?

Thanks.

[Renée]

Sir Mutt,

Here is a link to another post which discusses how to change the baud rate in LabVIEW using VISA.

http://forums.ni.com/t5/Instrument-Control-GPIB-Serial/how-to-change-BAUD-Rate-dynamically-using-vis...

There is also a Developer Zone on using IVI driver with LabVIEW. That link is below.

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4556

Good luck.

[Sir_Mutt]

Thanks Renee, but this is not a VISA session. For the IVI, there is no property for baud rate, etc.  I had scoured through the ivi info I've been able to find, including your second link but none of that helps with this issue.  Any other thoughts?

[Renée]

Sir Mutt,

Unfortunately, I think you'll have to set that in MAX (Measurement and Automation).. Is there a reason you wanted to do it programmatically?

[Sir_Mutt]

We have configuration files with the setup for various equipment.  It would be best to be able to read those and set the values accordingly.

[Renée]

Sir Mutt,

I can't think of anything else off hand, but if you tell me which driver(s) you're using, I could try downloading them and seeing what I can find.

[Sir_Mutt]

the one I've been testing usage with is the Agilent 34401A IVI driver.

[Renée]

Sir Mutt,

I looked up that device, and stopped at this link:

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=1494698&nid=-536902435.53688093...

Can you tell me which one(s) you're using specifically?

[Sir_Mutt]

I got the IVI driver from the NI site...  http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=E3B19B3E9419659CE034080020E748...

Thanks for assistance BTW.

[Renée]

Sir Mutt,

You're quite welcome. I'm installing that now and will get back with you shortly with my findings.