control PXI instruments trhough Function Panel or ¿VISA?

[norak]

Hi;

Do you know if you can control a PXI instrument (e.g. PXI-4045) with VISA or you only can use the functions of the Function Panel?

thanks

[mvr]

Most NI PXI instruments are controlled through NIDAQmx.  For instruments from other vendors they are usually controlled through the vendors own device driver or code libraries.  Almost all instruments are controllable through some sort of device driver interface that allows programming from CVI.   I am not familiar with a PXI-4045, who makes it?

[norak]

ok,

It is obvious that is a mistake, I mean PXI-4065

thaks for your replay

[norak]

Hi,

http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361A-01/lvmeasconcepts/visa_in_labview/

It is said that i can use VISA library to control PXI instruments as well?

[mvr]

The normal method to program a PXI DMM through CVI would be to use the NI-DMM driver software.  This provides a standard function call based interface to the DMM.  This is a very old and very simplistic example but it is all I could locate at the moment. 

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/1282

There are better examples that install with NI-DMM.  While I believe it is possible to do register level programming for PXI instruments similar to the old VXI based programming method through VISA it would be an enormous amount of work to do so.  I also believe you would need to contact NI for the register based technical information for the instrument as that method of programming is an archaic religion that is not commonly documented for todays hardware.  Unless you have a specific need to go the VISA route I would not recommend it. 

[norak]

Ok,

I take your advice and I´ll use the NI DMM driver.

I have to program diferents instruments from different vendors and I have to decide the method of instrument control,

I decided use VISA as a way of programming all instruments...

but I am seeing that there are several ways (libraries) to do this.

I suppose the best way is to use the specific driver for each instrument.

thanks for your help

[norak]

one more question,

In your opinion what is better, to use the NI Driver specific for the instrument (e.g functions included in function panel, niSwitch.fp for PXI-2529)

or to use the functions in DAQmx library?

and Do you know if PXI-6509 has specific driver (function panel *.fp)? or you only can control it with DAQmx?

thanks a lot

[mvr]

The 6509 is easily controlled directly through the nidaqmx library.  If NIDAQmx is installed on the machine you should have access to all the functions through the Library entry in your IDE.  There is also a panel available in Measurement and Instrumentation Explorer that will allow direct control of the 6509.  Just expand the Devices and Interfaces menu, then expand NI-DAQmx Devices, right click on the 6509 entry and select Test Panels to get a interactive panel interface.  If you have never used NIDAQmx before you want to look at some examples that are loaded in cvi to point you in the right direction.  They can be found by selecting Find Examples from the help menu and looking under the entries for Hardware Input and Output.

NIswitch installs some nice panels and has some neat features in the libraries to create scan lists etc but for basic control of a switch or mux device itself from your cvi code you only need the functions available in nidaqmx.  Which route you take is a matter of personal preferance.

[norak · Accepted solution]

ok

very helpful replay