Stanford Research SIM 900 series

[jnagy]

I have a Stanford Research 900 mainframe and several 900 series modules, but I cannot find any downloads for it on the NI website.  Are there other instrument drivers that are compatible with my instrument or is there another site where I can find the driver?

[Hillman]

Hi jnagy

You and using third party hardware with Labview. National Instruments tries to verify as compressively as possible the range of third party drivers to support these instruments. However, it would seem that none of the Stanford Research drives are verified by NI. Therefore, you need to contact Stanford Research to see if they have a driver which will work.

Here is the link to their downloads page - it’s a good sign that the make Labview instrument drivers, but you’re in a better position than me to know which one you'd need.

link

Good luck, thanks

[Sudhu]

HI,

I have purchased this instrument recently. Does anyone has a labview drivers and data aquisition software for this?

Thanks,

Sud

[Kaitlin-N]

Hi Sudhu,

Here is the list of Stanford Research drivers offered on ni.com:

http://search.ni.com/nisearch/app/main/p/bot/no/ap/tech/lang/en/pg/1/sn/ssnav:idr/q/Stanford/

Regards,

[Sudhu]

Hi Kaitlin,

Thanks a lot for the information. Unfortunately I couldnt find drivers for SIM900 mainframe and other 900 series modules. In case if someone in this forum has managed to develop a software for these modules, could you share it?

Thanks,

Sud

[margaret90]

Hi jnagy,

I got the same problems. I just found this communications examples for SIMs, http://www.thinksrs.com/downloads/PDFs/ApplicationNotes/ComSIMs.pdf.  Do you think we can type the code in the labview to connect? Or did you already find a way to figure it out? Could you let me know?

Thank you so much!

Sincerely,

Jiayi

[dmsilev]

Hi Jiayi,

I've done some programming of the SIM modules (specifically the AC resistance bridge and the quad multiplexer). It's fairly straightforward; the command language is laid out in the Stanford manual, and the only real complication is taking into account the addressing scheme that they use to multiplex all of the modules through a single GPIB or RS232 port on the mainframe. And again, the scheme is laid out in the manual. It's been a while since I looked at that code, but if you have any specific questions I can try to answer them.

Best,

Daniel

[margaret90]

Hi Daniel,

I am so glad to hear that since I want to use the AC resistance bridge. Did you use labview? Do you still have the copy? If not, I will try by myself to do some programming. May I ask for your email address? 

Thanks a lot!

Sincerely,

Jiayi

[dmsilev]

Hi Jiayi,

Here's a library I wrote a while back. The key routine is SIM900 Query Module.vi; it takes care of adding the necessary header characters to route a query to the desired slot. The upper level routines can read the resistance from the bridge, set a few of the bridge parameters, and change the active channel on the multiplexer. That's about it. If you need to access additional parameters/functionality of the instrument or if you want support for other modules in the SIM900 series, you'll have to do some coding. 

Please note that (a) this code is hardwired for GPIB using the low-level routines rather than VISA and (b) it is not exactly the cleanest or most robust code around (no real error-handling, for instance). Fixing those at some point is on my to-do list, but unfortunately it's fairly far down on that list. Also, the two custom controls and the 'Read all Rs and Ts' routine are very specific to the system that this bridge is hooked up to; you should ignore those.

Best,

Daniel

[margaret90]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you so much! That is really helpful. Could you send me the attachment again with a lower version since I only have LabVIEW version 12.0 and yours is version 14.0?  I will appreciate it a lot. 

Thank you su much!

Jiayi