tkds5000 IVI Driver Issue Tektronic 5104

[Ksmeltzer]

I'm currently programing a Tektronic 5104 Scope with IVI drivers from NI.  I developed a vi that works perfectly for channels 1 and 2, but when I try and use it for any other channel it does not work properly.  Given that the code works for certain channels and not other, it seems like the problem is with the IVI drivers.  Any solutions?

[Dennis_Knutson]

Can you provide a few more details on 'it does not work properly'? Do you get an error and if so, what is the error code? Is the scope not getting setup correctly? If so, what are you trying to set it to? Is the scope itself reporting an error? If so, what is the error?

One thing you can do yourself is to turn on NI-Spy and look at the commands being sent and the data being returned. With that information, you could compare that to the commands in the manual to see if the syntax, etc. is correct. In case you didn't notice, the download page for the IVI driver says it was only tested with the 5054 model so the possibility exists that there are some slight differences between the two that could cause a problem. If you could isolate what the problem is, you could feed that information back to NI and hope to get an updated driver in a reasonable time. Frankly, I think anyone doing work with IVI should have a copy of LabWindows/CVI so that a driver can be modified if necessary.

I'm assuming that you are using the Scope class driver in LabVIEW and not the instrument specific one but you could also try the LabVIEW driver at http://sine.ni.com/apps/utf8/niid_web_display.download_page?p_id_guid=1CCC03EAE2B94BFDE0440003BA7CCD... and see if you have a similar problem. The LabVIEW driver has been tested with the5104.

[Ksmeltzer]

I figured out the issue.  We are currently switching between the 5104 and 5104b models of the Tektronic scopes.  When using the 5104b I had to supress the ID query to get it to pass the initialize vi within the IVI drivers for some reason.  This was not needed for the 5104 model, but I left the suppression in the code so it would work for both models.  Today, I was troubleshooting and found out that when the ID query is set to false, it only allows channels 1 and 2 to work and when it is set to true everything works properly.  Therefore, I have a properly working vi for the 5104 model only (since the ID query doesn't work for the 5104b).  However, I've decided to use the standard instrument drivers instead of the IVI now, so the issue is solved on my end.  Thanks.