How Do I Find GPIB Devices With NI-488.2 for Mac OS X?

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Primary Software: Driver Software>>NI-488.2
Primary Software Version: 1.0
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A
Hardware: GPIB>>Plug-in Controllers>>PCI-GPIB

Problem:
I want to see what GPIB devices are connected to my NI-488.2 device and see what address they have configured in Mac OS X. In Windows, I would use Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX) and click "Scan For Instruments" but cannot find this option on my Macintosh.

Solution:
As of this writing, there is no MAX utility for Macintosh. However, you can still determine what instruments are on the GPIB with other utilities. NI-488.2 for Mac OS X includes the ‘Interactive Control’ utility in the National Instruments»NI-488.2 installation folder. This image
shows where to find this utility with ‘Finder’.

‘Interactive Control’ allows users to write to and read from the GPIB bus for troubleshooting purposes, and also allows users to find all listeners that are connected. With ‘Interactive Control’ started, the following set of commands can be entered to find all listeners (and their respective GPIB addresses) connected to your computer. The following screen shot shows these commands entered into the ‘Interactive Control’ utility.

Finding Listeners

set 488.2 0 This activates IEEE 488.2 commands; 0 is the board index.

SendIFC This sends the "interface clear" command, which makes gpib0 the controller-in-charge (CIC).

FindLstn This is the find listeners command. Unlike its 488.1 counterpart, ibln, this function will allow you specify an address list, so that you can locate multiple listeners at the same time.

enter address list: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Possible addresses for devices, numbers between 0 and 30, separated by commas

enter 'limit' number: 3 Maximum number of devices ibic will look for

[0130] ( cmpl cic atn ) Returned value showing that transaction has been completed, board is controller in charge, attention asserted

count: 2 Count is a returned value showing the number of listeners found

listeners:
0
3
Listeners is a returned value showing the addresses of the devices found. In this example the FindLstn command found two listeners: the GPIB board at PAD 0 and an instrument at PAD 3.

quit This command quits the ‘Interactive Control’ utility

These steps will help you determine if any devices are listening and their addresses. At this point you can use set gpib0 to directly communicate with your GPIB board and these devices. See Support: GPIB Installation/Configuration Troubleshooter for more commands to use in the 'Interactive Control' utility.

Related Links:
Support: GPIB Installation/Configuration Troubleshooter

Attachments:

Report Date: 11/12/2004
Last Updated: 03/03/2006
Document ID: 3FBDAFMQ

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