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Products => Test Equipment => Topic started by: Hifi Necromancer on March 22, 2022, 05:17:05 am

Title: Setup help with NI GPIB-USB-A and -B on Windows 7
Post by: Hifi Necromancer on March 22, 2022, 05:17:05 am
I recently acquired a NI GPIB-USB-A and a GPIB-USB-B interface and I'd like to use them with Labview under windows 7.  Both devices appear to be genuine articles.  I've successfully connected the -B model using the 488.2 v17.6 driver, as it's detected by MAX and passes self-test, but I'm unable to connect the -A.  From what I can gather, the -A model only works with driver versions 1 thru 2.2, which are not available on the NI site. 

NI states that if I need the older drivers I can contact them, but in order to do so I need a service program membership which I do not have.  I'm not sure how to proceed from this point...any ideas?
Title: Re: Setup help with NI GPIB-USB-A and -B on Windows 7
Post by: Aiy on March 28, 2022, 08:17:52 pm
Hello there,
In my experience the NI GPIB-B can be used with quite recent 488.2 drivers, although the device support has ended (last version is somewhere around VISA/488.2 version 18.0)
The NI GPIB-A has not worked under Windows 7/10, they dropped the support at win2k/XP.

I have uploaded Version 2.2 of NI 488.2 here in case you want to try anyway:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dcfW1ImCTfmQZN1h6X9nfT7FJKcVRtF9

Best regards
Title: Re: Setup help with NI GPIB-USB-A and -B on Windows 7
Post by: rfclown on March 28, 2022, 09:35:55 pm
poking around in ftp.ni.com/support I see some older versions. Notes seem to indicate maybe 2.0 will work? Weird that 2.0 is in a file named 377119.zip (in support/gpib/archive)
Title: Re: Setup help with NI GPIB-USB-A and -B on Windows 7
Post by: rfclown on March 28, 2022, 11:01:45 pm
got home from work. I have a GPIB-USB-A in my stash. Unfortunately the drivers I have installed on my Win7 and WinXP PCs are both Ni-448.2 3.0 which don't work with the A. I normally use a GPIB-USB-HS (at work and at home). Sorry I'm not up to downgrading my drivers to see if it works. I don't want to break anything in these systems.

I got into the ni ftp site using Filezilla with anonymous login
Title: Re: Setup help with NI GPIB-USB-A and -B on Windows 7
Post by: gslick on April 21, 2022, 09:28:22 pm
Quote from: Hifi Necromancer on March 22, 2022, 05:17:05 am
I recently acquired a NI GPIB-USB-A and a GPIB-USB-B interface and I'd like to use them with Labview under windows 7.  Both devices appear to be genuine articles.  I've successfully connected the -B model using the 488.2 v17.6 driver, as it's detected by MAX and passes self-test, but I'm unable to connect the -A.  From what I can gather, the -A model only works with driver versions 1 thru 2.2, which are not available on the NI site. 

NI states that if I need the older drivers I can contact them, but in order to do so I need a service program membership which I do not have.  I'm not sure how to proceed from this point...any ideas?

The ReadMe file for NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.4 says this:

Code: [Select]
Enhancements and Bugfixes in Version 2.4
----------------------------------------
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.4 adds support for GPIB-USB-HS, NI 
ExpressCard-GPIB, and a revised version of the PCI-GPIB+ 
Controller/Analyzer board. Support for the obsolete GPIB-USB-A 
interface has been dropped in this release.

If support for the GPIB-USB-A was dropped in Version 2.4, then maybe that means support for the GPIB-USB-A is present up through Version 2.3, even though the ReadMe file for NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.3 doesn't include the GPIB-USB-A in the list of supported interfaces?

Code: [Select]
Supported Interfaces
--------------------
NI-488.2 for Windows, Version 2.3, supports the following hardware on
Windows 2000/XP. Windows 98/Me is no longer supported.
      
AT-GPIB/TNT(PnP)
GPIB-ENET/100  
GPIB-USB-B
PCI-GPIB
PCI-GPIB+
PCI-GPIB/LP
PCI-8212
PCI Express(TM) Interface for GPIB
PCMCIA-GPIB
PCMCIA-GPIB+
PMC-GPIB
PXI-GPIB
PXI-8212
PXI-8232

This thread has a pointer to where CD images of old NI-488.2 for Windows release can be found:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ni-gpib-vintage-driver-for-windows98se/msg4130899/#msg4130899 (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/ni-gpib-vintage-driver-for-windows98se/msg4130899/#msg4130899)