Is there a Wizard for CVI to create a non-IVI instrument driver?

[Mike T]

I really don't need all the bells & whistles of IVI. (The number of lines of code to send "*IDN?" and get the response is mind boggling!)

I just want to create a VXIpnp instrumnet driver. Must I do it from scratch?

[Shiner]

Other than check to see if you have an old version of CVI lying around, or take an existing driver of a similar class of instrument to which you are trying to create.

They are not that difficult to create (but a pain), and I too agree with you, it would be nice to be able to create a standard driver and not the IVI. Although I do see the point of IVI, but not if I don't need all those bells and whistles...

What device are you trying to create the driver for ?

Someone might have one out there ?

Chris

[Mike T]

Chris, thanks for your reply. When CVI comes out with new versions, we hear all the hype about all the great new stuff. What they don't tell us is what you loose. In this case I lost a very productive tool that exactly met my needs: a wizard to bang out a VXIpnp driver.

Although IVI has been around for awhile, I seriously doubt that everyone embraces it to the exclusion of VXIpnp.

[Jeremiah Cox]

Hello Mike T,
CVI does not provide a VXIpnp instrument driver wizard (with good reasons that I will explain below). I would recommend that you check our instrument driver resources at http://www.ni.com/idnet and look for a similar Legacy CVI instrument driver to use as a guideline.
Why do we not have a VXIpnp instrument driver wizard? IVI fully defines the API for base features and extensions for each instrument class it supports. This is what allows us to have a wizard to generate the code -- all non-instrument specific code is already fully specified in the IVI Class Specifications decided upon by the IVI Foundation. The VXIpnp Instrument Driver standard has a loosely defined API, only requiring some basic functionality. If we had a VXIpnp instrument driver wiz
ard, we would have to come up with an general API that would work for all instruments. We consulted with end-users and instrument vendors to research this possibility, and as a result, the IVI Foundation was born. For further information, please see http://www.ivifoundation.org or http://www.ni.com/ivi.

Jeremiah Cox
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
http://www.ni.com/ask

[Mike T]

Jeremiah,
Thanks for your reply. Your points are well made, and well taken. However, I respectfully suggest that CVI should provide a Wizard to make a VXIplug&play compatible driver, like it used to, before IVI came along. IVI is a superset of VXIpnp, and I don't need the extra IVI stuff. The instrument I'm working with is a Tunable Laser Source. It is not represented by an IVI class, so I'm using the General Instrument template. I find the need to create attributes and multiple callback functions for every single command and query to be massive overkill. I don't care about: simulation, caching, or virtual instruments. For what it's worth I have a MSCS and I do understand the potential benefits of IVI. But in the real world that I live in, test engineers
don't work that way. VXIpnp is perfectly sufficient. So now I can either strip out all the IVI stuff from my project or start over from scratch. Frankly, I think it would be easier to start from scratch.

[RayFarmer]

Hi,

I am sure CVI4 use to have a wizard that generated the standard Instrument driver. IVI only covers 5 classes of instrument, there are still loads of instruments that are not covered by IVI yet and wont be covered for some years now. So come on NI bring back that wizard.

After all LabVIEW (5.1.1) still has the standard instrument driver wizard or has LabVIEW 6 done away with its wizard!!!

Regards
Ray Farmer

[Mike T]

Hi Ray,
Thanks for your support. I get the feeling that NI is trying to "force" us to use IVI.
Since none of my customers are requesting IVI, my plan is to provide VXIpnp only.
Mike

[RayFarmer]

Mike,

Check out the Resource Library | Instrument Drivers | Development Tools | Labwindows CVI.

There is a link to the old templates etc. This may help to cut your development time.

Regards
Ray.