USB-GPIB-HS

[Baudouin.de-m]

Hello,

I have installed NI-VISA 17.5 on my windows 10 computer. It easily finds USB instruments attached to my computer and I can establish a communication link with those.

However, I have old instruments that can only communicate through GPIB. For these, we bought a NI GPIB-USB-HS control device. It seems we need to install an additional driver to use the GPIB-USB-HS. I read on the download page that NI-VISA is able to control GPIB instruments.

What is the driver needed to continue working with NI-VISA ?

Thanks for your help and have a nice day,

Baudouin

[GovBob]

Have you installed NI-488.2 driver for your NI hardware?

[NIquist · Accepted solution]

I just sent a co-worker instructions for using that interface.  Here are the links to the drivers.  GovBob mentioned 488.2 (GPIB) which is required but I don't think NI clearly mentions it. 🙄  You have VISA but I also recommend you get the Sys Config package since it has NI-MAX and IO-Trace which can be VERY useful.

• NI System Configuration - System Configuration Download - NI
• NI VISA - NI-VISA Download - NI
• NI 488.1 (GPIB) - NI-488.2 Download - NI

[Baudouin.de-m]

Thanks GovBob for your answer, I understand I also need NI-488.2, although I first thought we had to choose between NI-VISA or NI-488.2 !

I have the full install of NI-VISA, do you think the NI-488.2 runtime is enough or the full install is required ?

I must admit I do not really understand what is included or not in these different install programs.

---

[Baudouin.de-m]

Hi Niquist,
Thanks for your answer too,
No it ain't clearly mentioned and, on the download page, NI-VISA is said to work with GPIB devices. The full install is also quite huge so I assumed it hat the USB-GPIB-HS driver included !
NI-MAX is included in NI-VISA (full install), I don't know for IO-Trace.
For all these installs (NI-VISA, NI-488.2 and NI System config) do you make all full installs or some runtime only ?
I use VisaComLib in Excel VBA to make very small programs that help in the lab, it is not big scale production software. So I look forward to have a small software installation footprint, do you think the runtime are enough ?

Thank you for your answer and have a nice day,
Baudouin

[Nwz7rH83%]

Dear Nick, all

I am having a similar problem....I can see my GPIB-USB-HS device in my NI max but in my computer control panel I get a code 10.

The LEDs on my device initially light up but then don't, and previously I used this device to successfully communicate with various instruments, but after switching from Windows 11 to 10, it hasn't worked.

Of course we have gone back to Windows 11 but the problem persists. See attached pictures.

I have downloaded the 488.2 drivers etc. but no success.

It was working fine before. Please help!

Niall

[NIquist]

It sounds like you either have a version compatibility issue or the install order got mixed up when you changed OS versions.  If you are using Win10/Win11 the latest drivers should work.  You can see what you have installed with the NI Package Manager or with NI-MAX under My System > Software.  If you don't have at least version 19 for VISA and 488.2 you should upgrade them. If you do, or an upgrade doesn't fix it, try uninstalling VISA and 488.2 and then re-installing.  They both need to find a proper LabVIEW install to link to and maybe they got corrupted by your OS swap.  Hopefully you won't need to uninstall all the NI software and start over.  That used to be common with NI installations but they have gotten much better since the Package Manager matured.

NI-VISA and LabVIEW Version Compatibility - NI

[PMarsh]

Hi,

Has anyone been able to get the GPIB-USB-HS+ working with Linux?
I've installed https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download/unpackaged-linux.ni-visa.550203.html

NI-visa 2024 Q4 version for Linux. I'm running Ubuntu 22.04 with the Linux 6.8 kernel. I've performed the workaround: 

https://www.ni.com/docs/en-US/bundle/ni-platform-on-linux-desktop/page/iommu-linux.html

But the driver doen't enable operation of the GPIB-USB-HS+ and the light on the GPIB-USB-HS+ flashes alternating between green and amber.

I've *never* yet been able to install NI VISA to Linux such that I can use the GPIB-USB-HS+.

Any ideas welcome and thanks, Phil

[PMarsh]

Hi,

I installed the latest ni-488 drivers, 2024 Q4:

https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/drivers/download.ni-linux-device-drivers.html#548386

and installed the .deb file for Ubuntu 22.04. My kernel is: 6.8.0-49-generic #49~22.04.1-Ubuntu.

I did follow NI's recommendation workaround to fix errors with this kernel.

The USB-GPIB-HS+ light flashes alternating yellow and green when Ubuntu controls the USB port.

Using Windows 10 with VirtualBox as a client with the above Ubuntu machine as host makes the USB-GPIB-HS+ work on this machine.

PyVisa cannot see instruments connected to the USB-GPIB-HS+ whereas NI-Max on the Windows 10 virtual mahine can and works OK.

Any ideas as to how to make the NI drivers work on Linux?

Thanks,

Phil

[Iwa6]

GPIB-USB-HS+ does not support Linux from the beginning.
The GPIB-USB-HS (non "+" conventional product) used to support Linux, but the current NI-488.2 driver does not seem to do so.
The PCI or PCI Express interface (PCI-GPIB or PCIe-GPIB) is required for use with Linux and the current driver.

https://www.ni.com/ja/support/documentation/compatibility/21/ni-hardware-and-operating-system-compat...