Need to use multiple drivers (VISA and win-USB) for a single piece of hardware

[Dave01010101]

I am communicating with a piece of equipment via Labview (using an unsigned VISA USB driver) and via commercial software that came with the equipment (using a signed windows USB driver) using the same computer.  The two drivers are not compatible, and switching between them is painful due to the unsigned nature of the VISA driver (also, this task needs to be undertaken by a lightly trained production operator). 

Does anyone know of a way to temporarily disable the VISA driver (in a way that is easy to undo)?

Thanks,

Dave

[MarinaBen]

Hello Dave,

What is your method currently to disable the VISA driver? What versions of both drivers do you have?

You may be able to switch between which driver is primary, but it would still be a process. This article gives a description on how to do so with NI-VISA, you may be able to switch between the two.

[Minions]

What is the instrument?  Can it be controlled via SCPI commands?  If you are able to use the SCPI commands to control the instrument, it may not be necessary to switch back and forth.

[SKJJJ]

I too have same type of problem. I am using my vector network analyser through LAN (VISA...TCPIP) and my motor on serial port (.Serial). Is it possible to to use both code on same time ?

[santo_13]

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@SKJJJ wrote:

I too have same type of problem. I am using my vector network analyser through LAN (VISA...TCPIP) and my motor on serial port (.Serial). Is it possible to to use both code on same time ?

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Of course, you can control more than 1 instrument on more than 1 communication port simultaneously.

[rolfk]

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@SKJJJ wrote:

I too have same type of problem. I am using my vector network analyser through LAN (VISA...TCPIP) and my motor on serial port (.Serial). Is it possible to to use both code on same time ?

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That's not at all the same problem as was discussed in this thread. You have two different hardware interfaces with each their own driver and there is no reason at all why you couldn't use them at the same time in an application.

This thread is about one hardware interface to be accessed by two different drivers. There is no way to do that other than writing a complete custom device driver that access the hardware through one of these APIs and provides the other API on top of that.