Communicating with a Hasomed RehaStim stimulator in Science Mode

[jfalesi]

Hello.  I am working on an application to apply Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) in a clinical research setting.  We use this stimulator in "Science Mode", in which it can be commanded via a virtual COM port using the FTDI driver.  I am attempting to communicate with the stimulator using NI-MAX.  As you can see from the attached images, I have set the port settings in both Device Manager and the VISA test panel to those indicated in the manual (115200 8N2).  I can write to the device, but I recieve a timeout error when attempting to read.  I've been Googling all day to no avail... can someone help me troubleshoot?

Thanks,

-Jamie

[DaSage]

Hi jfalesi,

Perhaps you are trying to read more bits/bytes than are available at the port? Can you try reading only one bit/byte at a time? Can you query the device?

[jfalesi]

I verified the number of bits to read with the manufacturer.  Querying the device gives the same result (timeout).  A rep from the manufacturer says not to use any termination characters on reading or writing.  Does this mean that End Mode should be set to "none"?  I have tried different combinations of termination methods in the I/O settings in VISA test panel to no avail.  The frustrating part is that I can communicate with the device in an application we've written, which simply uses VISA read/writes. We're opening the resource in "Load Configured Settings" mode, which is 115200 8N2 RTS/CTS.

-Jamie

[jfalesi]

How do you read a single bit from VISA Test Panel?

[DaSage]

It might actually be more insightful to verify the bytes showing up at the port; would you have access to the VISA API in LabVIEW to test this? If so, the following KnowledgeBase article will walk you through it:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/874B379E24C0A0D686256FCF007A6EA0

Also, I may have misspoke when suggesting you read a single bit. I was thinking one byte (my apologies!).