National Instruments GPIB-USB-A controller with Met/Cal 8.1

Started by tarzan271, 10-16-2012 -- 03:08:15

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tarzan271

I am trying to get a NI GPIB-USB-A controller to work with Met/Cal 8.1 on a Win XP machine. In my metcal.ini file it lists the GPIB-USB-A under the ib_type so I would assume there is some compatibility with these older controllers. Does anyone have any ideas?

USMC kalibrater

If you have the appropriate drivers and software installed then it would be helpful to know what error you are getting when you try to use the usb A.
If you have another computer that the usb-A is working on that eliminated the controller being bad.
Jason
"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." -General James Mattis

CalLabSolutions

I stopped using the USB-A cards a while back.. I don't think it is a Fluke 8.1 issue.. I am guessing they are linking to the updated NI Drivers and those links are not backwards compatable.

If anyone is looking for a USB-A GPIB Controller.. I have one for sale.. Cheap..   Along with a PCMCIA one with cable. 

Mike

This is a good one for the MET/LIST to let customers know running USB-A Cards on XP with MET/CAL 8.0 may have some issues.
Michael L. Schwartz
Automation Engineer
Cal Lab Solutions
  Web -  http://www.callabsolutions.com
Phone - 303.317.6670

tarzan271

I fixed it. It was a bad controller. I have never seen one go bad before, but there is a first time for everything. So the answer is, the NI GPIB-USB-A controllers will work with Met/Cal v.8.1 running on Win XP. Thanks for the suggestions.

Hawaii596

We run Met/Cal 8.0.46 (or something like that) on laptops.  I have NI GPIB-USB-HS and they work well on it. 
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind."
Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
from lecture to the Institute of Civil Engineers, 3 May 1883

measure

Keep in mind that by repairing the GPIB-USB-A controller that all you are doing is buying time. The transfer rate on the GPIB-USB-A is about 650 kb/s, the GPIB-USB-B about 850 kb/s, and the current GPIB-USB-HS about 1.8 Mb/s (488.1). One can't guarantee how long NI will offer 'backward compatibility' or how long computers will function at the slower transfer rate, given the speed of CPUs today, but I have seen the previous NI PCI-based cards fail to work when installed in a faster, 'hot rod' PC. Eventually, I would expect no different behavior from the GPIB-USB-A.

tarzan271

Quote from: measure on 01-25-2013 -- 11:00:11
Keep in mind that by repairing the GPIB-USB-A controller that all you are doing is buying time. The transfer rate on the GPIB-USB-A is about 650 kb/s, the GPIB-USB-B about 850 kb/s, and the current GPIB-USB-HS about 1.8 Mb/s (488.1). One can't guarantee how long NI will offer 'backward compatibility' or how long computers will function at the slower transfer rate, given the speed of CPUs today, but I have seen the previous NI PCI-based cards fail to work when installed in a faster, 'hot rod' PC. Eventually, I would expect no different behavior from the GPIB-USB-A.
I didn't repair the bad controller. I replaced it with a good one, because we have dozens of the A models lying around. There are no drivers available for the B or HS models on an XP computer. I use the HS's on Vista and 7, but some of our labs only have computers with WinXP to use for MetCal.

Hawaii596

So is the data rate on the NI GPIB-USB-A, -B, and -HS kind of analogous to USB 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?
"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind."
Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)
from lecture to the Institute of Civil Engineers, 3 May 1883