wrapper for Agilent E5270B Parametric Analyzer

[haadi20]

I am trying to communicate with the above mentioned instrument through labview but it seems it is missing the required wrapper/driver. The instrument has been installed with its P&P driver and is connected via GPIB interface. I am using LabView version 8.0

Can somebody help me in getting the required wrapper/driver, or suggest another way to go about it.

Thanks

[Will.D]

What do you mean by "seems it is missing the required wrapper/driver"?  Can you communicate with the instrument in MAX?  What are you trying to get the instrument to do?

When you refer to plug and play drivers, are you referring to Windows drivers or LabVIEW drivers?

[Dennis_Knutson]

That driver is not available from NI. Is this a driver you downloaded from Agilent? If so, then this is really a LabWindows/CVI driver and you have to create the LabVIEW driver from it. For LabVIEW 8, you need the LabVIEW Interface Generator for LabWindows/CVI Instrument Drivers and follow the instructions at the end of Conversion of an Instrument Driver from LabWindows/CVI to LabVIEW

[haadi20]

First of all, thanks for your replies. I must admit that i am new to using LabView for doing measurements. Anyways, i will try to mention the details and ask my question again....

I am trying to set up the instrument for dc- measurements, it has two front panels with force and sense ports and is connected to the PC via a GPIB whose driver is installed correctly and has a specific address aswell. The instrument driver is plug&play and came on a cd with the instrument and is also installed correctly.

My question is how to create a VI which sends/receives information to the said instrument, do i need a specific add-on for LabView which will enable the software to "SEE" this particular equipment or do i just need the GPIB address and send the commands via LabView on that address, if the latter is correct, can you please send a link for a similar example/demo in LabView. I would be thankful.

To Dennis Knutson

Kindly let me know after reading this reply, if your earlier message still holds or you have something to add to it. Thanks

[Dennis_Knutson]

You don't need anything else. If you have an NI GPIB board, you should be able to open MAX (Measurement & Automation Explorer) and verify that the instrument can be detected. From there, you can write/read commands and data.

[haadi20]

I have made some progress, and used the LabView interface generator to retrieve all the VI's of the instrument using the .fp file.

But i still have one problem, i cannot use MAX to detect the instrument, the reason i think is that i dont have a NI-GPIB board but an Agilent (hp) GPIB board and when i try to use NI 488.2 Trouble shooting wizard it stops and says "The trouble shooting wizard has dected that no GPIB interfaces are configured on your system.... " . while doing this check the instrument is running and also connected to the PC...

so my question is, how do i get the Agilent GPIB board detected in MAX?

Thanks.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Try following the instruction in this post.

[haadi20]

I tried the method mentioned in the suggested post but still the instrument does not show up in MAX. The difference probably is that i have a PCI-GPIB card whereas in the mentioned post it was a USB/GPIB....what is ur opinion ?

Regards,

[Dennis_Knutson]

Make sure you have the correct versions of Agilent software installed. That includes Agilent's version of VISA. There is a Knowledge Base article on using Agilent boards. There have been other posts so you might want to do a search. Try 'Agilent GPIB MAX' as a search topic. The Agilent board comes with software for configuring and checking if instruments are found. Have you run that? If you can see the instrument with that, try manually entering the VISA resource name into the control on the VI. I can no longer check any of this myself. The last computer I had with an Agilent controller was retired a little while back and the controller was sent to another location.

[flp3_13]

Hi ,
I am trying to communicate with instrument from Agilent E4980A through Labview. Do somebody know , how it works? cause i am really new in Labview.
I have found driver E4980 Plug and Play for Labview, which i can get  from NI website. But i think i need Labview version 8.0 . Do sombebody know, how to update Labview 7.0 to LV 8.0.?

thank you