Now 22 days remaining...
Hi again Dennis.
There's the nub of the problem. "VISA drivers from NI do in fact work with Agilent VISA if you install everything correctly." I have to say, that I have always suspected that. But, where as a plain "appliance user" does one find the information to do that "correctly"? Assuming there is the ability to override the default autoinstall scripts supplied with whatever package is being loaded.
As to "Tulip support"... Just asked round here, no one has ever heard of that either, so what is it, and where from? Is it something that can be applied to existing systems, without recompiling the distributed binaries (applications) ? (I know about "Tulip Diagrams", as in rally stage navigation, but that's all.)
"f you are not using LabVIEW, then there is no reason to install NI's VISA"
But, we are using LabVIEW (various versions from what we can see!) but only in the form of precompiled binaries (.exe's) supplied by other vendors, where we have zero control of what or how they do things. In every case, it appears to us (all of us "L o n g t I m e" PC users from the dark DOS days onwards) that each and every vendor creates their programs assuming that it will be the only thing ever installed on a particular computer, and that there is never anything else preexisting either. We as users have next to no control of that.
The only "Portable" drivers we have experienced, are the "normal" NI GPIB IO card drivers. Anything written for them, "just works" and works well, with no fuss, be the hardware based on old ISA computers, right up to modern laptops with a NI USB<>GPIB device. I have to say, the people at NI have done a superb job with the "standard" GPIB technology in all it's diverse forms.
Sadly in ours and many other peoples experience, anything involving the VISA subsystem in particular, it's anything but a pleasant experience, almost certainly due to vendors "doing it the quick and dirty way." If it's quick, it's cheap, and as we are all run by bean counters, cheap is good. "It worked once, so ship it" is the mentality these days, sadly.
However, as before, I don't doubt that like everything, if done correctly, "all will be sweetness and light." Given half a chance and a following wind, I intend to do just that with whatever I create, when I find out how. (And it will be tested!)
So, what do we look up, and then use to beat our suppliers round the painful bits with, so they can do the "correct" thing next time. It has to be assumed that (in fact we know already) in some cases the programmers who wrote their app's are no longer with them, plus some of it was "outsourced" too, and strangely the sources are not available, we have discussed that in the past with one vendor in particular, at great length, seems they got ripped off, big time by their software contractors, but that's another story.
Also, that considerable cost to them will be incurred in time and expense etc, to "correct" what they do not see as a problem, after all, why should they make it easier for their customers to be able to use competitors programs too?
I'm sure you may now be beginning to appreciate the problem.
Thanks for your Time Dennis. I think it best a line be drawn under this, as I know I have better things to do, as I guess you do also. I would very much like some training for myself, to learn how to do all this the "Correct" way. But it has been pointed out to me, that the course fees would take an "extraordinary time" to recoup, based on what the overall plan is supposed to be. We are only a small company, import, sales and service etc.
The plan as far as I know it, was to get up to speed, and be able to support some up coming (and existing) LV based software products from at least two principles, mainly maintaining instrument driver libraries. But from what I'm learning, the financial outlay to be able to do so in a decent timescale, is beginning to look unrealistic. That and it's not that I (or anyone else) would be doing this, and only this either, as we all do many other things as part of our jobs.
I might be here happily tapping the keys doing some coding, the phone will ring, and in a few hours I can be on the road (or in a plane) destined to mess with high voltage and hot oil for a few days, with a customers manager screaming at me every half hour (it happens!) The only software involvement there, is filling out the repair record, and emailing it back to the office.
Best Regards.
Dave B
DJB.
OK... Who let the smoke out?
