Has anyone written a driver for the Labsphere SC-5500?

[saturn 2]

I am hoping to obtain a driver for this particular instrument. I was curious to know if anyone in the past has written one.

[ShotSimon]

Saturn,

Looks like it has IEEE-488 and RS232 computer connections.  Silly question but did you try calling the manufacturer?

Looks like fun

Regards,

-SS

Message Edited by ShotSimon on 07-18-2008 01:10 PM

[saturn 2]

I did indeed call the manufacturer but they do not possess any such software. The device does come with documentation with programming commands, and sample programmingh for C++ and QuickBasic using the RS232 and IEEE ports. I did begin to try and develop my own driver using the I/O Assistant. However, when I would enter any of the provided programming commands in the command line of the Assitant, my instrument gave back the message "Invalid Command." This does mean that the computer and the instrument are communication, however it is not accepting any of the manufacturer provided commands.

[Ray.R]

If you can communicate with the instrument using the serial or GPIB, then it should be simple to implement a solution even without the IO assistant.

Try to send the known commands to the instrument using MAX (Measurement and Automation Explorer).  This allows you to communicate manually with the instrument over the interface that you have physically connected to the intrument.

R

[ShotSimon]

Are you using RS232 or IEEE port?  -SS

[saturn 2]

RS232 with a null modem adaptor.

[ShotSimon]

I guess the good news is your device returned something  You could try using Hyperterminal with the settings the manufacture recommends and see if you get back responses.  Make sure you know if you need hardware flow control vs software flow etc.  Check that your cable is wired correctly and that you have a GND connection.  -SS

[Ray.R]

Did the manufacturer recommend the Null modem adapter? or cable?

[saturn 2]

So after playing with the instrument in MAX, I noticed that despite the INVALID COMMAND ERROR message that was displaying on the LCD of the instrument, the instrument was still performing the commands that I was sending it. So I went back to the I/O assitant and started to write commands in the read/write/parse despite the Error message. Things were quasi successful here, however there were fluky and inconsistent behaviors with the instrument and the computer. I'll keep things updated as to the progress of the project.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Before you start writing any code, you should check the commands with a terminal emulator like Hyperterminal. If the commands do not work there, you should go back to the vendor ans ask what is going on. Every vendor should understand  Hyperterminal. Many will just respond with a 'Huh?' if you mention LabVIEW. If everything works flawlessly in Hyperterminal, then you may be improperly formatting the commands in LabVIEW. A common error is to use an incorrect termination character or no termination character at all. If you are required to send hex data, then that is something else that is often incorrectly done and you probably should not be using the Instrument I/O Assistant.