Read Me First, July 2006
- Download Agilent E8491 1394 VXI Controller Driver
- Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Drivers
- Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Download
- Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Updater
- Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Manual
© 1995–2006 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved.
- The Agilent E8491A / E8491B IEEE-1394 PC link to VXI is a C-size, 1-slot, message-based VXI module, providing a direct connection from your PC to a VXI mainframe via the industry standard IEEE-1394 bus (FireWire). The Agilent E8491A is a cost effective choice for high-speed data acquisition applications moving large blocks of data.
- Appendix B Editing the Agilent E8491B Resource Manager Configuration 75 76 Editing the Agilent E8491B Resource Manager Configuration Appendix B Index Agilent E8491B IEEE 1394 PC Link to VXI Configuration and User’s Guide A alternate configurations, 19 applying power, 33 asynchronous data transfers, 60 E E1406 using the E8491B with, 19 E8491B.
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS HOLDS MULTIPLE COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS, AND PATENTS FOR THIS PRODUCT. BY DOWNLOADING AND/OR INSTALLING THIS PRODUCT, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THE license.rtf FILE THAT RESIDES IN THE SAME DIRECTORY AS THIS readme.html FILE ON THE CD AND/OR WEB SITE. FOR PATENTS COVERING NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS PRODUCTS, REFER TO THE patents.txt FILE ON THE ROOT DIRECTORY OF YOUR CD (IF APPLICABLE) AND/OR www.ni.com/patents.
Interface by highlighting the VXI E8491 IEEE-1394 to VXI entry in the Available Interface Types box and clicking Configure (or.Auto Config). E8491 update information and then Resource Manager information should then be displayed on the PC. E8491 Support Information You can reach Agilent Technologies at these telephone numbers.
Contents
Using NI-VISA 4.0
Supported Platforms
NI-VISA for Windows supports the following platforms:
- Windows (Win32) XP x64
- Windows (Win32) XP/2000
- LabVIEW Real-Time (Phar Lap ETS) 8.2/8.0/7.1.1
- LabWindows/CVI Real-Time (Phar Lap ETS) 8.0.1
- LabVIEW Real-Time (RTX) 8.2/8.0
- LabVIEW PDA Module (Windows Mobile/CE) 8.2/8.0
- LabVIEW Touch Panel Module (Windows CE) 8.2
While this distribution targets all these platforms, you can run setup.exe only on Windows XP/XP x64 and Windows 2000.
Installing and Uninstalling NI-VISA 4.0
NI-VISA 4.0 does not support Windows 9x/NT. To run your VISA application on Windows 95, you must install NI-VISA 2.6.1 or lower. To run your VISA application on Windows 98/Me, you must install NI-VISA 3.0.1 or lower. To run your VISA application on Windows NT, you must install NI-VISA 3.3.1 or lower.
Before you install NI-VISA 4.0, we strongly recommend that you uninstall any versions of VISA prior to NI-VISA 2.0.1. NI-VISA 4.0 should upgrade properly over NI-VISA versions 2.0.1 through 3.6.
After uninstalling NI-VISA, some DLLs and executables may remain in the NI-VISA directories. To complete the uninstall process, you must restart your machine.
Note: The uninstaller application will not notify you when rebooting is necessary. If you plan to reinstall NI-VISA, you should always reboot the machine after running the uninstaller.
LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine
The Setup program now automatically installs the LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine when necessary. The NI-VISA interactive utility, VISAIC, requires the LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine 6.0 or later to be installed. When you install this utility, Setup also installs the LabWindows/CVI Run-Time Engine if it is not already present.
PXI Support
PXI Geographic Addressing Support
Starting with NI-VISA 3.0, we now support geographic addressing for PXI resources. Geographic addressing includes the ability to identify the chassis number and slot number for a PXI module. To support geographic addressing, the following attributes have been implemented on the PXI INSTR resource type:
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Using these attributes, PXI resources can be located based on their geographic address in a system. For example, the resource description string 'PXI?*INSTR{VI_ATTR_PXI_CHASSIS1 && VI_ATTR_SLOT3}' can be used to locate a PXI device in chassis 1, slot 3.
PXI Resource Naming
Starting with NI-VISA 3.0, we now include a new PXI resource format based on the traditional bus number/device number/function number addressing scheme:
PXI0::<busNum>-<devNum>[.<funcNum>]::INSTR
For example, given a PXI device at bus 2, device number 17, function number 1, the corresponding resource name for this device would be PXI0::2-17.1::INSTR.
In this new resource name, the 0 in PXI0 represents the PCI interface number for the PXI system. Currently, this interface number is always 0. Note that the interface number is not necessarily the same as a device's PCI bus number.
Of course, NI-VISA continues to support the legacy PXI naming convention:
PXI<busNum>::<devNum>[::funcNum]::INSTR
Note that, for a single-function PXI device on PCI bus 0, both of these resource formats yield an identical string.
PXI System Configuration
To enable geographic addressing, a PXI system description file (pxisys.ini) must be present on the system. Beginning with NI-VISA 3.0, Measurement & Automation Explorer (MAX) includes the ability to identify components in a PXI system. Through the hardware identification process, MAX collects the information necessary to generate a PXI system description file.
Follow these steps to configure your PXI system for geographic addressing:
- Launch MAX.
- Expand the Devices and Interfaces folder. If you are configuring a LabVIEW RT system, locate that system's Devices and Interfaces folder under the Remote Systems view.
- Identify your PXI controller. Locate the PXI System 0 item. PXI System 0 represents the PXI system and its controller. To identify this controller, right-click on PXI System 0 and use the Identify As feature, selecting your controller from the resulting list.
Note: If you are using an external PC to control the PXI system via a PXI bridge such as MXI-3, select this option from the menu.
- Identify your PXI chassis. Expand the PXI System 0 view to locate your PXI chassis in the system. For embedded controllers, a chassis is added when the controller has been identified. For a chassis controlled via MXI-3, these chassis are added automatically by the software. To identify a chassis, right-click on the chassis and use the Identify As feature, selecting your chassis from the resulting list. The chassis will be assigned a number based on the PCI bus number that the chassis resides on.
Once the controller and chassis have been identified, a pxisys.ini file is created. This file conforms to the PXI specification and allows drivers (including NI-VISA) and other configuration software to enable geographic addressing and other features of PXI. On Windows, this file is in the Windows directory. For LabVIEW RT systems, the pxisys.ini file is automatically copied to the remote system's c:ni-rtsystem directory.
Multiple GPIB-VXI Controller Support
NI-VISA supports multiple GPIB-VXI controllers in a single system. Because the National Instruments GPIB-VXI controller ships with a primary address of 1, NI-VISA automatically searches for any GPIB-VXI controllers at that address.
If you have changed the primary address (for example, if you added a second GPIB-VXI controller to your system and set the primary address of the second controller to 9), or if you have a GPIB-VXI controller from another vendor, you need to add it using MAX so NI-VISA can find it. Right-click on Devices and Interfaces and select Create New... to add a new GPIB-VXI interface. Specify the controller's GPIB primary and secondary addresses, as well as the GPIB board to which it is connected. Then specify a new GPIB-VXI interface number and its logical address (usually 0).
If you are using a GPIB-VXI command module from another vendor, you also need to obtain and install that vendor's VISA GPIB-VXI component.
If you have a GPIB device at primary address 1 and that device does not recognize *IDN?, you should disable the GPIB-VXI auto-detect feature in MAX from the Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options menu.
Agilent/HP Controller Support
NI-VISA now works with Agilent/HP GPIB and VXI controller cards. To use this feature, go into MAX, select Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options, choose the Passports tab, and enable the NiVisaTulip.dll Passport. NI-VISA automatically finds and accesses any GPIB or VXI devices. However, NI-VISA does not configure the Agilent/HP hardware; you still must do that with the Agilent/HP I/O Config utility.
If you have both National Instruments and Agilent/HP controllers in the same system, you must configure the cards at different system addresses, such as GPIB0 and GPIB1. If both vendors try to use the same interface address, NI-VISA reports an error from viFindRsrc or VISA Find Resources.
Using viPeekXX/viPokeXX Macros
Users who want to use the viPeekXX/viPokeXX macros for platforms on which the macros are available must define a macro called NIVISA_PEEKPOKE before including visa.h. Note that the macros are currently available on only the Win32 platform (all C/C++ compilers).
If you have used these macros with a version of NI-VISA prior to 2.0, your application will continue to run, but the peek/poke performance will decrease. You should relink with the libraries supplied with this installation to regain the prior peek/poke performance.
Known Issues
IVI driver developers can use the new VISA COM API. NI-VISA does not yet document this API, so only those developers familiar with the specification should use it in this release. The relevant COM classes for getting started include IResourceManager and IVisaSession, registered in GlobMgr.dll. The VISA COM API is functionally equivalent to the VISA C API. It does not add features; it is just another language interface. The VISA COM API can be installed only if you have Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher on your system.
If you are using NI-VISA with the VisaNS .NET API, you might find that an existing project created with an older version of VisaNS now produces build errors that read error CS0011: Referenced class '<className>' has base class or interface 'NationalInstruments.ISynchronizeCallbacks' defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'NationalInstruments.Common'. To eliminate this error, add a reference to the NationalInstruments.Common assembly to your project.
Improvements and Bug Fixes
NI-VISA 4.0
Added support for 64-bit data transfers in register-based operations, to support the VISA 4.0 specification.
The I/O control in LabVIEW 8.0 would not always honor the parameters you specified in the filtering dialog, depending on the order in which you made changes. This is fixed.
viScanf would crash when reading indefinite-length block data. This is fixed.
For ENET-Serial INSTR sessions, framing errors were occasionally not detected. This is fixed.
Improved performance of NI Spy.
Improved performance of VISA in MAX, especially when expanding folders or exporting/importing configuration data.
In MAX, some strings in foreign languages would be displayed with invalid garbage characters. This is fixed.
NI-VISA 3.6
For TCP/IP SOCKET sessions, re-enabling the termination character between read operations would incorrectly flush the internal buffer. This is fixed.
For TCP/IP SOCKET sessions, reading less than the entire amount of data that the device sent would not work correctly for asynchronous read operations. This is fixed.
In MAX, on LabVIEW RT systems, you can now import the Serial Advanced Settings that were exported on systems with NI-VISA 3.4.1 and older.
In MAX, on large LabVIEW RT systems, expanding Devices and Interfaces or clicking on the Serial category is much faster.
In MAX, improved usability for VXI-11 LAN/LXI instruments. The 'Create New' wizard for detecting devices is easier to use. Also, the device detail views now show the model name and serial number, and also allow access to the device's web page.
In MAX, if you enabled the NiVisaTulip Passport, Agilent I/O GPIB and VXI resources would not show up in the 'Miscellaneous VISA Resources' category. This is fixed.
NI-VISA 3.5.1
The new PXI/PCI Express attributes are now implemented.
NI-VISA 3.5
For TCP/IP INSTR sessions, viWrite would fail if the transfer size was more than 8 KB. This is fixed.
Significantly optimized PCI interrupts and block moves.
Significantly optimized calls to viFindRsrc and viOpen for all interface types.
After running MAX, GPIB-VXI controllers were not autodetected until after a reboot. This is fixed.
If NI-Motion was installed, trying to create a new VISA resource in MAX would hang. This is fixed.
NI-VISA 3.4.1
Fixed compatibility issue with VISA I/O Control in LabVIEW 8.0 on Windows XP x64 Edition.
NI-VISA 3.4
For USB RAW sessions, communication with nonzero control endpoints is now supported with the use of VI_ATTR_USB_CTRL_PIPE.
For USB RAW sessions, the default setting for VI_ATTR_USB_END_IN has been changed from VI_USB_END_SHORT to VI_USB_END_SHORT_OR_COUNT.
For USB RAW sessions, viReadAsync would fail if the transfer size was over 8 KB and not a multiple of the maximum packet size of the endpoint. This is fixed.
For USB RAW sessions, changing the USB Alternate Setting on a USB Interface number other than 0 would fail. This is fixed.
For USB RAW sessions, viOpen leaked a handle for each invocation. This is fixed.
For TCP/IP SOCKET sessions, VI_ATTR_SUPPRESS_END_EN set to VI_TRUE did not work in all cases. This is fixed. The default attribute setting for VI_ATTR_SUPPRESS_END_EN on TCP/IP SOCKET sessions is now VI_TRUE.
For PXI INSTR sessions, when enabling for VI_EVENT_PXI_INTR using VI_QUEUE, viDiscardEvents did not work properly. This is fixed.
Searching for VXI-11 resources would fail if the system had multiple ethernet interfaces. This is fixed.
FireWire resources used to show up under the 'Miscellaneous VISA Resources' category in MAX. There is now a new category for FireWire resources.
For Serial resources in MAX on LabVIEW RT systems, COM ports were not ordered sequentially. You also could not save changes to the port settings. These are fixed.
For GPIB INSTR sessions, when using a GPIB-USB controller, if you unplugged and replugged the GPIB-USB cable, you would have to exit and restart your application to communicate with it again. This is fixed.
For VXI resources, the minimum supported version of NI-VXI is now 3.x. NI-VISA 3.4 will no longer work with NI-VXI 2.x on Windows.
NI-VISA 3.3.1
The maximum number of supported Serial ports on LabVIEW RT (Phar Lap ETS) was 32. It is now 128.
Opening a Serial port on LabVIEW RT (Phar Lap ETS) while also performing a VISA Write to the same port would cause a crash. This is fixed.
Performing asynchronous I/O to a remote VISA resource would return an incorrect transfer count and/or data. This is fixed.
Querying a PXI/PCI resource would return incorrect manufacturer information if that device's subsystem identification differed from its primary identification. Another symptom of the same problem is that trying to enable interrupts would return an error. This is fixed.
NI-VISA 3.3
Added support for the FireWire (1394) INSTR resource on Windows and Phar Lap ETS platforms. This supports register-based device access. This is a new feature.
The PXI/PCI INSTR resource now supports a new 'emergency termination' feature that will send a user-defined series of register reads and writes to the device in the event of a process crash.
For USB RAW sessions, now interrupt-out endpoints may be used for viWrite.
For USB RAW sessions, viReadAsync is now implemented.
Download Agilent E8491 1394 VXI Controller Driver
Only up to 30 USB RAW devices could be used at one time. This arbitrary limitation has been removed.
For USB RAW resources, the procedure of resetting a pipe may not have been given enough time to complete if the VISA timeout was set very low. This could put some USB devices into a bad state. This is fixed.
viFindRsrc would crash when given long strings that use remote NI-VISA. This is fixed.
Calling viMoveAsync on a remote VISA session would return an error. This is fixed.
For Serial INSTR sessions, viClear previously would flush (discard) the I/O buffers and then send a break. According to the VISA spec, VISA must flush (discard) the I/O output buffer, send a break, and then flush (discard) the I/O input buffer. This is fixed.
viScanf and variants did not support the %u identifier for arrays. This is fixed.
viPrintf and variants did not support the %zy and %Zy identifiers for floating point data. This is fixed.
viPrintf and variants previously generated NaN, +Inf, and -Inf. It now generates NAN, INF, and NINF, respectively.
viScanf and variants did not correctly interpret the input values NAN, INF, and NINF. This is fixed.
Detecting a VXI-11 device without a name (IP address only) would crash MAX. This is fixed.
Reading PXI BAR addresses or the Model Name property from VISA would sometimes return incorrect values. This is fixed.
The function viMapAddress would hang when executed multiple times on PXI/PXI instruments when the CPU had hyperthreading enabled. This is fixed.
Remote VISA systems in MAX would use the IP address in cases where it should have used the hostname. This is fixed.
Guest users on Windows XP could not change VISA aliases. This is fixed.
NI-VISA 3.2
Enabling the NiVisaTulip Passport would cause applications to crash on exit. This is fixed.
For a USB RAW resource, calling viEnableEvent on VI_EVENT_USB_INTR with the VI_HNDLR mechanism would cause a crash when the first interrupt arrived. This is fixed.
Added support in MAX for the standard Export and Import wizard. For NI-VISA, this allows you to transfer the VISA aliases and driver settings.
Calling viPrintf on a remote VISA session would return VI_ERROR_IO instead of VI_ERROR_RSRC_LOCKED when the remote resource was locked. This is fixed.
The VISA Interactive Control utility (VISAIC) now displays an error message box when viFindRsrc returns an error.
For a PXI INSTR resource, calling viDisableEvent and then viWaitOnEvent would cause a crash. On Windows, the application would exit; on LabVIEW RT (both Phar Lap ETS and RTX), the system would need to be rebooted. This is fixed.
The NI-VISA COM API now supports PXI (INSTR, MEMACC) and USB (INSTR, RAW).
Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Drivers
Right-clicking on a PXI chassis in MAX now provides the option to open a VISA session to that PXI BACKPLANE resource.
Fixed various issues in MAX related to changing the IP address of a remote VISA system.
Calling viParseRsrcEx would in some cases output the resource class using the same case you used in the resource string in the input parameter. The output parameter should always be uppercase. This is fixed.
For a Serial INSTR resource, calling viGetAttribute on VI_ATTR_ASRL_WIRE_MODE would always output -1 if you had not yet set the mode for the given resource. Now if you have NI-Serial 1.6 or higher installed with supported hardware, it will output the default configured state rather than -1. Otherwise, it will still output -1. Note that NI-Serial 1.6 does not implement this feature on all currently supported NI RS-485 controllers.
NI-VISA 3.1
NI-VISA 3.1 supports the PXI/PCI interface type in the RTX real-time environment in LabVIEW RT. This is a new feature.
The VISA Driver Development Wizard can install the generated INF file onto your local system. This is a new feature.
The BACKPLANE resource type is supported in the PXI resource class. This is a new feature.
For a VI running on LabVIEW RT, calling VISA Close on an ENET-Serial resource would occasionally either hang or return an error. This has been fixed.
Calling viClose on an Ethernet resource would leak a socket handle. This has been fixed.
In MAX, it was not possible to create static TCPIP resources on a LabVIEW RT system. This has been fixed.
On Windows NT, 2000, or XP, calling viEnableEvent on a PXI/PCI INSTR resource would occasionally cause a system crash. This has been fixed.
Reading data from a Serial port was slow. The performance has improved.
Using the Serial Break VI from LabVIEW did not work with remote NI-VISA. This has been fixed.
Querying VI_ATTR_ASRL_AVAIL_NUM on a parallel port would return a large random number. The correct value for this is always 0. This has been fixed.
If you created a TCPIP resource in MAX with an alias, it would not show up. This has been fixed.
In MAX, choosing the Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options menu item would not always bring up the options. This has been fixed.
In MAX, if you disabled a COM port and clicked Refresh, the Serial resource would disappear completely. This has been fixed. The resource now continues to exist but has a black X overlay icon to indicate that it is disabled.
The VISA Driver Development Wizard now supports the PXI standard module.ini format. It will generate that file along with the .inf files for NI-VISA. You can also use this wizard to load module.ini files from other vendors.
In MAX, if you inserted a new Serial port, it would erroneously claim that the settings have a conflict. This has been fixed.
The VI_EVENT_USB_INTR event attributes did not work properly. This has been fixed.
If you unplugged a VISA USB device and plugged it back in, NI-VISA could not access the device properly. This has been fixed.
Calling viEnableEvent on a remote VISA session would leak memory in the server. This has been fixed.
Creating a new remote NI-VISA system would hang MAX. This has been fixed.
The hostname localhost or the IP address 127.0.0.1 did not work properly with remote NI-VISA. Only the DHCP name or network IP address would work. This has been fixed.
The remote NI-VISA server did not properly validate a hostname with an underscore. This has been fixed.
Calling viGetAttribute on VI_ATTR_INTF_INST_NAME on TCPIP resources with Internet Explorer 2 would crash. This has been fixed.
If you enabled a LabVIEW RT system that was using DHCP as a VISA remote system to search when finding resources, NI-VISA would use the IP address rather than the DNS name. Starting with LabVIEW RT 7.1, remote systems are correctly assigned DNS names, and NI-VISA can use the DNS name when finding remote resources. Any existing remote VISA system that was enabled for finding will remain listed using its IP address unless you disable and re-enable the system for finding. Enabling a remote system with LabVIEW RT 7.1 already installed will result in NI-VISA using the DNS name if it is the same as the name of the remote controller. Otherwise, if the remote system is not using DHCP, or if the DNS name does not match the controller name, NI-VISA will still use the IP address of the remote system.
In MAX, if you changed the VISA Options and browsed to another item, your changes would sometimes be lost. This has been fixed.
The manufacturer and model name for PXI/PCI resources were incorrectly reported as unknown. This has been fixed.
The global attributes on a GPIB INTFC resource were not properly shared across sessions. This has been fixed.
Calling viOpen on a remote NI-VISA resource did not honor the openTimeout parameter. This has been fixed.
NI-VISA 3.0.1
For a PXI INSTR resource, calling viEnableEvent and viDisableEvent in a loop would leak memory. On LabVIEW RT, this would eventually cause a reboot.
For a GPIB INTFC resource, performing any asynchronous I/O would occasionally cause a crash when you later close the VISA session.
Installing NI-VISA 3.0 on a system with LabVIEW 6.1 would cause user VIs that use VISA Configure Serial Port to have a broken wire.
NI-VISA 3.0
The driver now works properly with Fast User Switching on Windows XP/2000.
For a PXI INSTR resource, we now support PXI/PCI devices that rely on the subvendor ID and/or the subvendor model code. To use this functionality, you must create a new .inf file with the VISA Driver Development Wizard. The attributes VI_ATTR_PXI_SUB_MANF_ID and VI_ATTR_PXI_SUB_MODEL_CODE are no longer supported by the VISA driver. The correct attributes to query are now VI_ATTR_MANF_ID and VI_ATTR_MODEL_CODE. These will return the primary vendor information if no subvendor information is present, and they will return the subvendor information if it is present.
For a PXI MEMACC resource, viMemFree now frees all memory correctly.
For a Serial INSTR resource, viOpen on both Windows and LabVIEW RT will now accept COMx as a valid resource name even if MAX has not yet been run.
For a Serial INSTR resource, viOpen will now open a port if the process that had been using that port exited ungracefully (such as with <Ctrl-C>). The previous behavior had been that viOpen would return VI_ERROR_RSRC_BUSY.
For a Serial INSTR resource, viWriteAsync was not implemented. Now it is.
For a Serial INSTR resource, multiple sessions to the same port caused weird behavior if you tried to both write and read data simultaneously. This has been fixed.
For a Serial INSTR resource, if you enabled RTS/CTS flow control and then manually tried to set the state of the RTS line, some operating systems would generate VI_ERROR_NSUP_ATTR while others would return VI_SUCCESS but not actually modify the state of the line. Neither of these behaviors was correct. Now NI-VISA will return VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP in this case on all operating systems.
For a Serial INSTR resource, the RS-485 wire mode attribute now works properly on Windows XP/2000.
In GPIB, the attribute VI_ATTR_INTF_INST_NAME would report an unknown board type for some GPIB-USB and GPIB-ENET controllers. The symptom was also visible in the VISA Interactive Control utility. This attribute now reports the correct information.
In GPIB, the implementation of viFindRsrc could take up to 10 s if you had NI-488.2 version 2.0 installed. The symptom was also visible in LabVIEW when you dropped the first VISA resource control on the front panel. This now takes less than 1 s on most machines.
NI Spy occasionally would incorrectly report an output jobID of 0 for viReadAsync or viWriteAsync, even though the operation completed successfully with a valid nonzero jobID.
NI Spy would not restore the window location on a monitor other than the primary monitor. This now works as expected.
If you ran MAX as a guest user and edited the Passport settings, the new settings could not be saved to the registry, but MAX did not generate a warning. This has been fixed, and you will now get a warning.
For a TCPIP SOCKET resource, viReadAsync was not implemented. Now it is.
The remote NI-VISA server could not be started on the same machine as the remote DAQ server because they both used the same port. Now the remote NI-VISA server uses port 3537 by default.
viFindRsrc would crash on a complex expression with multiple | symbols. This has been fixed.
If you had a GPIB device at primary address 1 that generated a response to *IDN? that was longer than 100 characters, viFindRsrc would occasionally crash. This has been fixed.
Some VISA COM components were not being correctly registered.
The VISA COM API would return an incorrect string from ReadString if the number of bytes read was exactly what was requested.
The VISA COM API would not return output string parameters correctly if the variable passed into the function was uninitialized or had a garbage value. This problem was normally only seen from C++ when using a raw BSTR instead of CComBSTR. This has been fixed.
In GPIB, the implementation of viFindRsrc on LabVIEW RT would find GPIB resources only on GPIB0. It now finds GPIB resources on any configured GPIB interface number.
Calling viUnmapAddress when using an Agilent HP-E1406A GPIB-VXI controller would cause the application to crash. This has been fixed.
The attributes VI_ATTR_MANF_NAME and VI_ATTR_MODEL_NAME are now correctly implemented for GPIB-VXI regardless of whether NI-VXI is installed.
The maximum simultaneous number of GPIB-VXI controllers supported by NI-VISA has changed from 10 to 32.
The VISA Driver Development Wizard (formerly known as the PXI Driver Development Wizard) now allows multiple logical-OR PXI interrupt conditions.
You can now edit the binding properties of a VISA TCPIP resource in MAX. For example, you can change the hostname or IP address.
MAX can now auto-detect VXI-11 TCPIP resources on your subnet. When you right-click on Devices and Interfaces and choose Create New..., you then need to specify a VXI-11 instrument and click the option to have MAX browse your local subnet.
If you enabled the VISA COM API for VI_EVENT_SERVICE_REQ for a callback, it would crash when the event was being raised. This has been fixed.
If you tried to exit the VISA Interactive Control utility by right-clicking on the taskbar icon and choosing Close, the utility would hang. This has been fixed.
Using remote NI-VISA with asynchronous I/O did not properly transmit data asynchronously. This has been fixed.
In Serial on LabVIEW RT, you can now configure advanced settings (such as FIFO triggers and the default RS-485 wire mode) in MAX.
In Serial, if the Windows configuration settings for a given port were different from the NI-VISA settings, MAX would overwrite the Windows settings when you clicked Refresh. Now, MAX points out the different settings and lets you choose.
In MAX, selecting Rename on an alias and changing merely the case of the alias would cause an error. This has been fixed.
When calling viWaitOnEvent repeatedly with a timeout of 0 (immediate), some interfaces and event types would still consume excessive CPU time. Now doing this will yield the CPU regardless of the interface or event type.
For a Serial INSTR resource, if a parity or framing error occurred, NI-VISA would not return the correct error condition. This has been fixed.
viFindRsrc would return VI_ERROR_INV_EXPR if the expression exceeded 255 characters. Now it will accept resource expressions of any length.
If a PXI multifunction device did not have function 0 registered as an NI-VISA resource, viFindRsrc would not return any of the other functions of that device either, even if they were registered with NI-VISA. This now works properly.
Calling viFindRsrc would always assert REN on each GPIB board after finding devices. Now viFindRsrc will reassert REN on each board only if there is at least one open VISA INSTR session on that board.
Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Download
For a TCPIP SOCKET resource, using viRead with termchar enabled was much slower than reading the exact number of bytes. The performance of using termchar with viRead is now much better than it was.
NI-VISA 2.6.1
NI-VISA is now partially localized for Japanese. The localized portions include the installer, NI Spy, and VISA provider in MAX.
In PXI, handling interrupts using the VISA queue is now faster on LabVIEW RT and Windows 2000/NT/XP.
When you open a VISA session to GPIB0::INTFC and immediately query the attribute VI_ATTR_GPIB_SRQ_STATE, it previously returned the value VI_STATE_UNASSERTED. It now returns VI_STATE_UNKNOWN because the SRQ line cannot be monitored if the interface is not yet CIC. The correct state is returned after calling viGpibSendIFC.
For a TCPIP INSTR resource, calling viTerminate did not work correctly.
For a TCPIP INSTR resource, calling viRead or viWrite with a large buffer occasionally would return an error without transmitting the entire buffer.
For a TCPIP INSTR resource, opening and closing sessions to multiple host addresses would cause NI-VISA to crash.
For a TCPIP INSTR resource, calling viLock with a timeout longer than the I/O timeout for that session could cause NI-VISA to return VI_ERROR_TMO.
viScanf%# modifier will now output the number of characters put into the buffer excluding the terminating null character. This applies to the %#s, %#t, %#T, and %#[] modifiers. NI-VISA treats the maximum array size (specified on input) as the total buffer size including the terminating null character.
Once viScanf returned VI_ERROR_TMO, it would no longer work properly on that session.
Opening and closing a serial port in a loop on Windows 2000/NT/XP would cause a memory leak.
LabVIEW RT now supports the attribute VI_ATTR_ASRL_WIRE_MODE.
NI-VISA 2.6
Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Updater
viGpibPassControl now returns an error if the primary and/or secondary address is invalid.
In VXI, mapping a trigger line already mapped produced VI_ERROR_LINE_IN_USE (0xBFFF0042), instead of VI_SUCCESS_TRIG_MAPPED (0x3FFF007E). This now returns the expected status code.
In PXI, VXI, and GPIB-VXI, using viMoveInXX and viMoveOutXX with a negative value for the length parameter occasionally would cause the system to reboot. This now returns the error code VI_ERROR_INV_LENGTH (0xBFFF0083) instead.
In PXI, viMoveInXX and viMoveOutXX would access the same location rather than incrementing the address. This has been fixed.
In PXI, if the device memory window was less than 4 KB and the Windows OS put it at an offset that was not aligned on a 4 KB boundary, NI-VISA could not access it properly. This has been fixed.
In PXI, the ability to query VI_ATTR_MANF_NAME and VI_ATTR_MODEL_NAME was not implemented. This has been added. You should generate new INF files using the new version of the PXI Driver Development Wizard. Many supported cards have already been added to the NI database and should be listed in MAX. Any devices using the new INF files will also have their names listed properly.
In PXI, if the device model code began with a zero (0), using viEnableEvent would return an error. This has been fixed.
If you opened and closed a parallel port quickly, viOpen would occasionally return VI_ERROR_SYSTEM_ERROR (0xBFFF0000). This problem may still occur, but it is the result of an OS error indicating the resource is busy. In this case, NI-VISA now returns VI_ERROR_RSRC_BUSY (0xBFFF0072) instead.
If you wrote data to a parallel port on Windows NT/2000, the timeout was being ignored. This has been fixed.
In Serial, if you tried to set 8 data bits and 1.5 stop bits, NI-VISA would return the error VI_ERROR_SYSTEM_ERROR (0xBFFF0000). On Windows this is an invalid combination, because 1.5 stop bits is supported only with 5 data bits. With 8 data bits, you may use either 1 or 2 stop bits only. In this case, NI-VISA now returns VI_ERROR_INV_SETUP (0xBFFF003A) instead.
viReadToFile now writes the correct data to the file.
If you created a TCP/IP VXI-11 device entry in MAX and then exited and restarted MAX, that device would no longer show up. This has been fixed.
For TCP/IP SOCKET and INSTR resources, the openTimeout specified in viOpen is now used as the network timeout during the connection sequence. The default openTimeout, if not specified, is 2 s (2000 ms).
For TCP/IP SOCKET resources, trying to set the attribute VI_ATTR_TCPIP_NODELAY to VI_TRUE would return an error on Windows 98. This has been fixed.
For TCP/IP INSTR resources, trying to do a viRead or viReadAsync on a buffer with a size larger than a few kilobytes, would either return an error or occasionally crash. This has been fixed.
In MAX, the GPIB resources could not be dragged into LabVIEW 6i. This has been fixed.
After uninstalling NI-VISA 2.5.x, MAX would display a VISA Error. This has been fixed.
Fixed installer bugs where the PATH and VXIPNPPATH environment variables were incorrect, when using directory names with spaces on Windows 95/98.
NI Spy would crash if the application being spied upon had a pathname greater than 72 characters. This has been fixed.
Calling viTerminate on a Serial transfer would return the incorrect number of bytes transferred up to that time. This has been fixed.
Calling viTerminate on a Serial transfer would cause subsequent transfer attempts (read or write) on the same session to appear to complete prematurely. This has been fixed.
Fixed LabWindows/CVI function panel help. Added descriptions of the new resource string formats and event types that NI-VISA 2.5 and higher supports.
viFindRsrc would previously reject certain valid expressions and accept certain invalid expressions, usually involving spaces. This has been fixed.
Calling viUninstallHandler from the callback is not recommended, but is supported. Doing this in NI-VISA 2.5.2 would take 15 s.
Calling viEnableEvent on VI_EVENT_SERVICE_REQ for GPIB would not generate an event if the SRQ line was already asserted. This has been fixed.
viFindRsrc now automatically detects parallel ports other than just LPT1.
In Serial, RS-485 does not support all the lines that RS-232 does. Querying the attributes corresponding to those lines will return VI_UNKNOWN_STATE.
In Serial, the DTR line was always asserted on viOpen. For RS-232, that continues to happen. For RS-485, we no longer assert the line automatically.
In Serial, if data arrives at the same time as viTerminate is called or a timeout occurs, the data now gets read. If this satisfies the read request, the read operation returns a successful status.
Improved NI Spy performance. Each call now takes less space in memory and on disk. Large files now load much faster. When loading files larger than the call history depth, there is now an option to load only the first or last calls, instead of the entire file.
Calling viOpen with access mode 1 (exclusive lock) did not work as expected on GPIB interface sessions. This has been fixed.
NI-VISA 2.5.2
Fixed bug with enabling the exception event on GPIB-VXI.
Fixed bug with GPIB-USB-A and NI-VISA on Windows 2000.
The performance of viFindRsrc has improved.
On Serial reads where the data is not immediately available, the CPU usage is now lower.
Fixed bug with using NI-VISA on Windows 2000 as Guest users.
viScanf%f modifier will now properly scan numbers larger than 231-1.
By default, viFindRsrc will return only the PXI/PCI instruments for which you created INF files using the PXI driver development wizard. But you can open sessions to all resources that you were able to find using earlier versions of NI-VISA. To enable viFindRsrc to return all available resources, change the PXI setting in MAX in Tools»NI-VISA»VISA Options.
Fixed bug with MAX with GPIB on Windows 2000.
The PXI Driver Development Wizard will now also generate a .inf file for LabVIEW RT.
NI-VISA 2.5
GPIB performance has improved. Its performance is now identical to NI-488.
If you are using the GPIB-ENET controller, the previous version of NI-VISA would take a minute or more to time out if a GPIB-ENET controller were not connected or powered on. The timeout is now much shorter.
Serial performance has improved. It no longer consumes excessive CPU time during read operations when the data is not immediately available.
The VISA serial driver now works with baud rates higher than 256000. NI-VISA will allow any baud rate that the Windows driver will accept.
If you set the Flow Control serial setting in T&M Explorer, it was not stored properly. This has been fixed in MAX.
This version of NI-VISA incorporates general bug fixes and improvements for GPIB-VXI. The NI-VISA code instrument will now load properly in configurations where it previously failed.
If a GPIB-VXI chassis is reset while an application has VISA loaded, the GPIB-VXI would previously become accessible only as GPIB but not GPIB-VXI. This release of NI-VISA will now properly re-detect the GPIB-VXI.
Fixed bug with the GPIB-VXI and hardware triggers.
Fixed bug for PXI in Windows NT where it would occasionally crash on exit.
Fixed bug for PXI where repeated calls to viOpen or VISA Open would occasionally return an undocumented status code.
The documentation now includes resource strings and valid parameter values for PXI operations.
The PXI Driver Development Wizard will now also generate a .inf file for Windows 2000.
Download Agilent E8491 1394 Vxi Controller Driver Manual
This version of NI-VISA incorporates general bug fixes and improvements for formatted I/O, especially with very large buffers and with the following modifiers: %b, ,, #, !ob, !ol, and %[.
The documentation for viPrintf and viFlush better describes when formatted I/O buffers are sent. The documentation for viScanf better describes the , and # modifiers.
Added capability to see low-level VISA formatted I/O buffers in NI Spy.
Improved NI Spy performance when capturing calls, logging to disk, and opening files.
Fixed bug with starting NI Spy while DLLs are in use.
Fixed bugs in NI Spy where invalid buffer addresses or invalid buffer sizes would previously cause NI Spy to crash.
Fixed installer bugs where the PATH and VXIPNPPATH environment variables were occasionally incorrect, especially with long directory names on Windows 95/98.
Credits
This product includes components that use the socket++ library. The library is © 1992–1995 Greg Lavender (University of Texas) and Gnanasekaran Swaminathan (University of Virginia). All rights reserved.
This product includes components that were created using DriverWorks. Copyright 2004 Compuware Corporation.