Agilent 82357A problem

[andres05]

I'm using an Agilent 82357A USB/GPIB interface. I can control a LeCroy waverunner scope with simple matlab commands so I assume that the interface is well installed and configured.

I also have a LabWindows installation. I tried to use the ivi driver from ni and I have also created a visa session but I couldn't communicate with the scope. I got the message: "The interface is valid but the specified interface number is not configured"

So, I'm not sure if I need to do anything special in order to configure the Agilent interface into the LabWindows environment.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,

Andres

[LoganS]

The error that you are getting indicates that no listeners were found on the bus. Try the following steps to resolve this problem:

-Verify that the GPIB board is configured as the system controller and that the primary address is 0.
-As the error indicates, make sure the instrument is connected and powered on.
-Make sure the primary address of the instrument is set to something other than 0.
-Make sure there are not two instruments on the bus with the same primary and secondary address.
-Power cycle the instrument to make sure that it is not in an offline state.

Have you also contacted Agilent and found out if there are any caveats to using the GPIB-USB interface with LabWindows or C? I'm still checking, but let us know if Agilent clues you in on any possible solutions.

Logan S.

[carlos]

Please help.  I am using the "82357A" and the "Devices and Interfaces" menu does not show the USB/GPIB device  "82357a".  The note says that adding the "Tulip" passport would make it be recognized by MAX.  This is not working for me.

NI visa and Agilent visa Interactive controls boths show the GPIB resources i.e "GPIB0:4:INSTR" for my instrument connected to the "82357" USB interface.  NI-MAX also sows the this Alias in the MAX-Software-Visa menu.  The problem is that LabWindows CVI Function Panels that are base on gpib 488.2 can not find the device.  If I use a function panel that uses the IVI, those panels work.  I do not have IVI style function panels for all my instruments.

I have an IVI style Function Panel for Agilent 34970A.

I need an IVI style Function Panel for HP 3488A switch control unit.

I need an IVI style Function Panel for  HP 3478A DMM.

OR... I need a way for my older 488.2 based fuction panels to recognize the devices connected to the "82357A" interface for GPIB.

HELP

[Matt_S.]

Hi Carlos,

The problem you are having is in a difference between VISA and NI-488.2. NI-488.2 will only communicate with NI GPIB cards. VISA will communicate with the Agilent cards through the tulip passport. The low level 488.2 commands are trying to use the NI-488.2 driver, and that won't function with the Agilent card. The reason you're able to use the IVI function panels is because those are using VISA on the lower level.

I hope this sheds some light on your situation.

Regards,
Matt S.

[carlos]

  Would I be having this problem if I had bought an NI USB to GPIB interface instead?

I still think this is not a good way to do plug and play.  If I buy an interface to connect GPIB instruments, I would expect all the GPIB software would work.  YOu are saying:

• A PCI to GPIB interface would work with software using VISA or 488.2
• A USB to GPIB interface would only work with VISA and not with 488.2

I think this implementation differences are causing many problems for US the end users. My claim is that I assumed that all GPIB interface devices would work with 488.2 software.  It is logical.  An analogy would be all Windows Explorer can read and write to all IDE hardrives regardless of the IDE interface as long as the Hard drives are IDE.  The IDE insterface can be a PCI card or a PCMCIA card or a USB to IDE device.  The software talking to the IDE hard drive does not care how it got there.

So All GPIB BUS interfaces should work with all 488.2 software regardless if the GPIB interface is PCI card or PCMCIA card or USB to GPIB device.

Is my argument valid?

How can I fix my function panels using the 488.2 calls?

Thanks

[Matt_S.]

Hi Carlos,

Your first question answers the rest of them. If you had an NI USB-GPIB interface you wouldn't be having this problem. That's because our NI-488.2 driver is meant to interface directly with our cards/converters. If you use our USB-GPIB or PCI-GPIB either would work exactly the same. The difference you're seeing is not based on the interface connected (PCI, PCMCIA, USB), but cause by different vendors. Agilent's USB-GPIB converter is not designed to be used with NI's 488.2 software. The communication being done on the GPIB side would be the same, but the way we communicate to the devices on a lower level to the PC is different.

Basically you have a couple of options.

1) Go with an NI GPIB-USB converter, which will work with VISA or NI-488.2
2) Continue using the Agilent GPIB-USB converter and use VISA calls and not the 488.2 calls. You should still be able to do all the communication you want, but you just can't do it using the 488.2 calls. You'd need to change to VISA reads and writes.


If this doesn't clear things up for you, please let me know. I would be more than happy to assist you further with this.

Regards,
Matt S.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Agilent I/O Libraries Suite 14.1 supports NI-488.2 and is installed
alongside NI's implementation in such a way that both are usable
simultaneously. NI-MAX, however, is a proprietary NI I/O configuration
utility that only allows configuration of NI I/O interfaces, so you
will generally not see Agilent interfaces in that utility and you will
certainly not be able to change their properties.

If you open the Agilent connection expert and click on your 82357A, you
will see an item labeled "Board Number" on the right-hand pane. This
is the NI-488 board number that the Agilent configuration utility
assigned to the 82357A. It is set to 10 by default so that it will not
conflict with NI's default board numbers, which start at zero and go up
(how many people have 10 GPIB interfaces!?) You can change it to
whatever you like, just make sure it doesn't conflict with any other
GPIB interface on your system.

You can LabVIEW with the assigned board number once you know what that
is. Only the 14.1 version and above of the I/O Libraries Suite
supports NI-488.2.

Good Luck!

Dave Gladfelter
http://gladfelter.net/weblog

[Matt_S.]

Knowledge Base regarding this.

Just in case you wanted a little more information on this.

Regards,
Matt S.

[daproject5]

I have two, apparently, confilicting statements from Agilent.

1. Taken from the Agilent Connectivity Guide - "..the Agilent 488 library allows you to use your NI-488.2 compatible programs with Agilent GPIB interfaces"

2. Received via e-mail from an Agilent engineer - "..using the NI-GPIB488.2 to control the Agilent 82357A is NOT possible".

I have managed to communicate with my instruments using VISA calls but since I have legacy software, including Instrument drivers, which use 488 calls I would really like to use the 82357A without modifying my code.

Any help much appreciated.

Kind regards

[markus kossmann]

That isn't a contradiction.

If you use 488.2 calls in your program, you link the program against a library which contains the code for these calls.

The NI provided version of that library supports only GPIB boards from NI, the Agilent version supports at  least Agilent boards.

In most C-development environments you can configure, what external library to use. So you can make your code working with another vendors board without rewriting it, but by relinking it.  However can't say if it is possible to configure CVI to use a 488.2 library of another vendor.

All NI 488.2 tools are linked with NIs 488.2 library. So they will not work with boards from other vendors.