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Communicating with a Tektronix Oscilloscope That Has LabVIEW Installed on It

Primary Software: LabVIEW Development Systems>>LabVIEW Base Package
Primary Software Version: 1.0
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: Driver Software>>NI-VISA

Problem:
I have a Tektronix scope that is running the Windows operating system. I have installed LabVIEW onto the operating system and want to use LabVIEW to view my signals. When I try to find the resource for the oscilloscope in Measurement & Automation Explorer, the oscilloscope is not listed. How do I communicate with the oscilloscope with LabVIEW?

Solution:
The traditional approach for communicating with an oscilloscope in LabVIEW is to use the VISA protocol. In these cases the scope is connected to a computer through GPIB, Serial, USB, or Ethernet. The code is then written in LabVIEW to communicate with the VISA resource for the device. However, in the case where the scope contains the computer, the connection becomes challenging.

To communicate with the Tektronix scope, a Tektronix program called "Tekscope.exe" has to run on the oscilloscope's operating system to publish a virtual GPIB VISA resource GPIB8::1::INSTR that can be used for communication. Since this scope is displayed as a virtual GPIB device it will not show up in Measurement & Automation but it can still be communicated with.

The virtual GPIB resource can be used exactly the same as a traditional GPIB resource. However, because it doesn't show up in Measurement & Automation you have to manually type the resource name into the VISA Resource Constant or Control. Doing this allows you to access the oscilloscope just as if it were plugged in to your computer externally.

Visa_Resource.PNG

Report Date: 06/19/2009
Last Updated: 06/25/2009
Document ID: 4YIFBMN8

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