GPIB-ENET with HPIB card

[Rafi2003]

1) I have a PC-No1 running on Win98 with HP-IB card which run a VB
application.
2) I would like to add a GPIB-ENET on the GPIB instruments chain so I
can work on the instruments in remote control (for developing purpose
and as long as this PC is not in use).
3) Installing the ENET requires installation of NI driver (ver 1.7)
which, I am afraid, will cause some trouble running the present
applicaiton.
4) The present application in PC-No1 (in Visual Basic 6.0) uses HPIB
driver and SICL.
5) The remote use of the ENET from PC-No2 is for developing a CVI 5.5
applicaiton and is running on Win2000.

a) Can it be done? How?
b) Will it be a good idea to get rid of the HP-IB in PC-No1, and use
the HPIB instruments via the ENET? Does this configuration have a
ny
disadvantage vs keeping the HPIB card in the PC?

Thanks
Rafi

[theW]

Rafi,

As I understand your question, you would actually like to have 2 GPIB controllers on a single bus, and use them to access the same set of instruments from separate computers. This is possible, but there are considerations that need to be made so that control passes cleanly from the HPIB to the GPIB-ENET/100 device. I assume that you will be using the 2 computers at different times, and you are not wanting to use them simultaneously to access the instruments.

You do not need to install the NI488.2 driver on PC1; you only need to install it on the computer that will be accessing the instruments via the GPIB-ENET/100 (PC2, I believe). Installing 488.2 on PC1 would cause other complications that are resolvable, but I will not go into them. Check the knowledgeba
se.

System Controllers vs. Controllers in Charge will help clarify some of the issues with having 2 GPIB controllers on the same bus. The document talks about passing control to an instrument, but you could do this with 2 interfaces as well.

It would be easier to talk to the instruments using only the GPIB-ENET/100 on both computers, but your software in VB 6.0 would probably need to be modified to make calls to the NI-488.2 driver rather than Agilent's SICL libraries. In this way, you have a common programming interface to communicate with the instruments.

Scott