using a lan/hpib gateway (Agilent) with a NI GPIB pci card

[yagnaes]

Need to be able to use a E2050 lan/hp-ib gateway (Agilent) together with a NI GPIB pci card on the same workstation (windows). I need 2 seperate gpib busses but also need the remote functionality or the lan/hpib box. I would use ni enet but it will not work together with a installed gpib card, only one or the other. Read information on useing an hp card with a ni card in the same system but cannot get it to work with the lan box. I do not have a hp card to install in my computer to see if that works or not. Has anyone attempted a similar task?

[Randy Solomonson]

Hello-

It is possible to use a PCI and ENET board in Windows 9X/ME. The solution for Windows NT/2000 is to use the new VISA server technology using two computers.

Computer A:
This is a computer that will not use a GPIB plug-in board, but is on the network. Install the GPIB-ENET/100 driver and VISA 2.6. Then, set the appropriate VISA server permissions and run VISAServer.exe (see the VISA Programmer's Reference for more details ni.com/manuals).

Computer B:
Install the PCI-GPIB driver and VISA 2.6. Use Remote VISA to access the ENET/100 through the other computer's driver.

This is also a very useful technology for remotely controlling numerous instruments throughout a distributed laboratory.

Randy Solomonson
Application Engineer
Natio
nal Instruments

[yagnaes]

That is fine and well if you would like to spend another $900 on an Enet board. Unfortanately I do not have that luxury, I need to use the available E2050s that we currently own with the NI cards we currently own. I was told that the current NI VISA software will support NI GPIB and HP(Agilent) HPIB cards on the same pc, so I was questioning whether the HPIB/LAN box was supported as well.

[Randy Solomonson]

Hello-

I'm not sure about the HPIB/LAN box. There's a knowledgebase that can help, "How Can I Use an HPIB Board with LabVIEW?". Do a search on ni.com for +HPIB.

Randy Solomonson

[yagnaes]

Thanks. I have read this and followed the directions and it does work with a HP card (I borrowed one from another station), but still cannot get this to work with the HPIB/LAN box. One item to note, the HPIB/LAN card is configured correctly as it does work if I use Agilent's VISA drivers. But I would like to use NI's VISA.

[MattBradley]

This may come a bit late, but better late than never.

I could get the NI e-net/gpib converter to work with Agilent's VISA, but I could never get the Agilent E2050A to work with NI's VISA. I do not know if any of the updates since then would help.