I assume that you are communicating through a RS232 interface with your motion controller. Is this correct?
In this case the typical reason for running into a timeout error is that the device doesn't understand the command that you have sent.
Please refer to your device's user manual. There is a good chance that you must add a termination character like a Line feed (LF) or a carriage return (CR).
To accomplish this, there are two approaches that can be taken: explicitly append a termination character onto the end of each command you will send, or set a global attribute of the VISA session to automatically append a termination character.
Best regards,
Jochen Klier
National Instruments Germany