Hello all,
(One small caveat, I am a biochemist, not a computer scientist, so this is all very new to me)
I have here with me a (quite old) Waters 2465 Electrochemical Detector and I am attempting to interface this instrument with a Windows 7 PC running LabView, with NI-VISA, NI-MAX, and NI-Serial, as well as a plethora of other Drivers (plug-N-play, etc.) included. The detector is connected via a 3rd party RS-232-USB connection.
My desire is to use this ECD to record current level as a function of time, and any instrumental input needed for the experimental parameters can be set up manually on the ECD machine.
In NI-MAX, I am able to locate the instrument, and validate its settings (Baud: 38400, 8-N-1-None) per the ECD manual.
When I open a VISA panel I always make sure to: validate the settings (above) again and check "Enable Terminal Character".
Upon querying the instrument, I am able to write any NI commands without issue, however; I receive a timeout error during the read operation.
I have tried \n, \r, \r\n, and \f as terminal characters for the *IDN? command, yet the timeout issue persisted.
I am also aware that the instrument may not share the available commands that are provided in VISA. To this end, I have tried searching the instruments manual for alternative ASCII commands, but was unable to find any (I don't know if the phrase "ASCII command" best describes what "*IDN?" is, however, I am a chemist)
In order to make sure that the issue was not my 3rd party connector, I conducted a serial loop test, which it passed.
My questions are these:
1) Any additional tests or troubleshooting that is recommended?
2) Can I configure the communication in a different way?
3) Is there an additional driver I need to run Waters' Instruments?
4) Do I even need to make sure I am no longer receiving this read timeout error before proceeding to use the instrument to make measurements?
Thank you for your willingness to help!
