Calibration Executive for Windows 2000/NT/XP

Version 2.2 Documentation File

(c) Copyright 2003 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. Product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

October 31, 2003

Contents

Changes Between Calibration Executive 2.0 and 2.1

Changes Between Calibration Executive 2.1 and 2.1.1

Changes Between Calibration Executive 2.1.1 and 2.2

General Information

Before Installation

Installation Issues

After Installation

Calibration Executive Issues

Calibration Procedure Issues

Additional Information

Changes between Calibration Executive 2.0 and 2.1

• The installer is designed and tested on Windows XP/2000/NT.
• There are numerous bug fixes in all of the calibration procedures.
• The E Series S Series procedure and NI4050 NI4060 procedure will determine the calibration uncertainty.
• The E Series S Series procedure has updated limit files to meet the NI 2003 specifications tables.

Changes between Calibration Executive 2.1 and 2.1.1

• There is a new calibration procedure for the NI 4070
• Calibration Executive has a new report generator which is faster and allows for a customizable cover page.
• There are numerous bug fixes in several of the calibration procedures.
• Calibration Executive 2.1.1 is updated to be compatible with NI IVI 2.0 and later.

Changes between Calibration Executive 2.1.1 and 2.2

• There is a new calibration procedure for the SCXI-1520
• There is a new calibration procedure for the NI 6601/6602/6608 counter/timers
• The E Series procedure now uses DAQmx for adjustment.
• The FP-TC-120 now includes adjustment.
• Calibration Executive has an updated report generator to fix a problem where some of the report data might be swapped.
• There are bug fixes in the NI 4050/4060 procedure.
• The SCXI-1102 has a better adjustment algorithm.
• The SCXI Procedures have improved execution speed
• The E Series S Series procedure has updated limit files to meet the NI 2003 specifications tables. These include the AT-MIO-16E-1, DAQPad-6070E, PCI-6071E, PCI-MIO-16E-1, PCI-MIO-16E-1, PXI-6040E, PXI-6071E, PXI-6070E.

General Information

The installer will copy all of the files required to run the Calibration Executive software. The installer will also add a number of support programs and drivers required by Calibration Executive. These programs include:

NI-VISA
NI-488.2
Measurement & Automation Explorer
NI-IVI Engine
NI-IVI Instrument Drivers
NI-DAQ
NI-DMM
NI-Scope
TestStand Engine 3.0
LabVIEW Runtime Engine
CVI Runtime Engine

Each of these programs is installed by a unique installer. You can uninstall software by using the Add/Remove program utility found in the Control Panel.

A soft copy of the Calibration Executive User Manual and individual calibration procedures can be found on your CD and under the start menu. These manuals are in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you may install it from the Acrobat directory on your CD.

Before Installation

• If you are installing over a Calibration Executive 2.0 installation, this installer will delete the Databases\Calibration Reports.mdb database file where the calibration report data is stored. You should back up that file before installation. After the installation completes, restore Calibration Reports.mdb.
• If you install over a Calibration Executive 2.1 (or later) installation, the installer will not delete or overwrite Calibration Reports.mdb.
• If you have Calibration Executive 2.0 installed, National Instruments strongly recommends that you uninstall it and all calibration procedures before you install this version of Calibration Executive. First, you need to uninstall each calibration procedure using a separate uninstaller before uninstalling Calibration Executive 2.0. These uninstallers may be located either under the Start menu or in the Add/Remove Programs utility.
• Sometimes, the Calibration Executive 2.0 shortcuts are not completely removed. You may need to remove these by hand.
• In addition, if you have the TestStand engine 1.0.1 or 1.0.3 installed, uninstall that.
• For Windows NT/2000/XP, the installer requires that you log on with Administrative privileges.
• Windows NT 4.0 requires service pack 6.
• Calibration Executive no longer supports Windows 95/98/ME.
• This installer will delete the Calibration Executive users that you configured in Calibration Executive 2.0. You will need to recreate those user accounts after installation.
• When the installer starts running, in many cases, it will immediately prompt you to reboot your computer. This is normal.
• If you have NI-488.2 version 1.60 or earlier installed, this installer will upgrade NI-488.2. During that upgrade, you may be prompted if you want to Remove Shared Files. Select 'No to All' to dismiss that dialog.
• If you have NI-DMM version 1.1 or earlier, you should uninstall NI-DMM before installing Calibration Executive. The NI-DMM update will not uninstall versions earlier than version 1.1.

Installation Issues

• On Windows NT 4.0, the installer may report a Wrong OS message. Install Service Pack 6 to fix this and restart the installer.
• The progress bar on the installer window does not update properly. The installer may appear to hang but is actually working.
• If you didn't uninstall all Calibration Executive 2.0 procedures before installing this version of Calibration Executive, not all of the files will be installed. You should run Repair mode on the Calibration Executive installer from Add/Remove Programs.

After Installation

Calibration Executive Issues

• Calibration Executive does not work on operating systems that use wide characters, for example, Japanese, Chinese.
• Calibration Executive only works on systems that use a period (.) for the decimal place of floating point numbers. If you use a comma (,) for the decimal place, you will need to change your configuration. To change this configuration on the computer, complete the following steps:
  1. Select Start»Settings»Control Panel.
  2. If you are using Windows 9x, click Regional Settings. If you are using Windows 2000/NT/XP, click Regional Options.
  3. Click the Numbers tab and change the Decimal Symbol from a comma (,) to a period (.). Change the Digit Grouping Symbol from (.) to (,).
• If you get an error message stating, "Could not locate the selected procedure in the Procedures directory," you should exit Calibration Executive and run a Repair mode on the Calibration Executive installer from Add/Remove Programs.
• If you generate an HTML report with a cover page and Internet Explorer is already open, you may see only the cover page when you generate a report. If you close Internet Explorer and regenerate the report, Internet Explorer will display both the cover page and the report in separate windows.
• Calibration Executive requires that you install MDAC 2.5 from www.microsoft.com/data. Do not use any version other than 2.5.

Calibration Procedure Issues

This section contains last-minute information that was not included in the documentation for each respective procedure.

• FieldPoint procedures: Only the FP-AO-200 and FP-TC-120 procedures include adjustment. Adjustment will be included in the remaining FieldPoint procedures in a future release.
• The NI 4350/4351 procedure does not include adjustment. Adjustment will be included in a future release.
• You should not calibrate the NI 4060 and NI 4050 using the Fluke 5500A/5520A. Only use the Fluke 5700A/5720A.
• NI 5102, NI 5112, NI 5911: These procedures may crash Calibration Executive if you terminate them while running.
• The current version of NI-DAQ no longer supports the DAQPad-MIO-16XE-50 and VXI-MIO products.
• When calibrating SCXI products, connect the MIO cable directly to the SCXI module to be calibrated. SCXI device calibration does not work in multiplexed mode. The SCXI-1124 is the exception to this rule.
• The PCI-MIO-16XE-50 is not suitable to calibrate SCXI products except the SCXI-1124. Self-calibrate on the PCI-MIO-16E-50 may return runtime errors.
• The SCXI-1100 procedure may return an IVI interface error -1074135039. This occurs if the SCXI-1100 has been configured to measure current rather than voltage. Users may install current shunt resistors inside the SCXI-1100 to measure current. Within Calibration Executive, there is no solution to this issue. National Instruments does not recommend removing the resistors.

Additional Information

For additional information about calibration, refer to the support section of the National Instruments Web site at http://www.ni.com/calibration. The Web site contains many electronic support services to help you in your development. Some of the databases included are:

Developer Zone

Software Library

KnowledgeBase