Lecroy Waverunner TCP/IP vs. LXI

[RTSLVU]

Any Lecroy experts out there? I have a Lecroy Waverunner 44Xi-A and occasionally have trouble comunicating with it.

It is connected through a ethernet hub to my PC.

I have installed Lecroy's VICP driver and I am using Lecroy supplied LV vi's.

Sometimes I have to select TCPIP mode in the scopes remote settings to get it to communicate

Sometimes I have to select LXI mode in the scopes remote settings to get it to communicate.

What is the difference and why would some of my programs require one or the other setting to work when they are all using the same PC, connection, scope, drivers, and vi's?

[Leonard33]

Hi,

If it is in fact using the same connection, then there is no need to switch between TCPIP and LXI.

There is something different about the connection if it has to be switched. (Could be the custom port, LeCroy scopes use port 1861 for TCPIP (VICP) connections but not for LXI (VXI-11) connections).

LXI (VXI-11) is a standard that has certain requirements (I am not sure what all of them are but I know one is that the instrument has to have an html page with certain information).

When LXI is selected for the remote tab on the scope, you can use your browser to see the page. Just enter the IP address of the scope as the URL.

Here is a link: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/3DD043326CF5BF6786256C10005151DC (I am not sure if it pasted as a link so you may have to copy and paste the URL) to an NI Knowledgebase article regarding VXI-11 and NI-VISA.

It has links to the specification.

When you use the TCPIP (VICP) connection, what is the VISA resource name you are using?

Was it configured in MAX?

I have attached a documet I wrote to help walk you through the setup in MAX.

I hope this helps.

You may also contact me at 1-800-553-2769 (that is 1-800-5LeCroy on a touch tone phone) and either select option 3 for tech. support or my extension (6088) from 8am to 5pm Pacific.

Cheers,

Leonard Brown

LeCroy Applications Engineer

[RTSLVU]

I went through your document and the only difference between what I have already was the remote system custom port number.

I added the new remote system with custom port 1861 to MAX but it did not help.

I figured it out sort of... At least why some of my programs only work in TCPIP mode and some only work in LXI mode.

If I use a VISA alias the scope must be in LXI mode to respond correctly

With the scope set to TCPIP mode the responce to any command is:

WARNING : CURRENT REMOTE CONTROL INTERFACE IS TCPIP\n

If I use VICP::192.168.100.101 as the VISA resource the scope must be in TCPIP mode to respond correctly

With the scope set to LXI mode the responce to any command is:

VISA:  (Hex 0xBFFF0067) The given session or object reference does not support this operation.

I must still be missing a MAX setting that needs to be set?

[Leonard33]

Hi,

I did some experimenting based on your description of what you were experiencing and here are my results:

When the scope is set to: TCPIP (VICP):

If you connect using TCPIP0::ip.address.of.scope

The return on a query is always telling you the remote interface is TCPIP and it never sends the result of the query. (although for some reason, the *IDN? query works).

You have to use VICP::ip.address.of.scope as the resource.

When the scope is set to: LXI (VXI-11):

If you connect using: VICP::ip.address.of.scope

You get the error telling you the given session or object does not support this operation.

You have to use: TCPIP0::ip.address.of.scope

When the scope is set to TCPIP (VICP), aliases do not work properly (it behaves like you used the TCPIP0 resource).

When the scope is set to LXI (VXII-11) it will accept an alias but you don't want to use the alias for the VICP resource because you will always get the above mentioned error.

Cheers,

Leonard Brown

LeCroy Applications Engineer

[Zdanowicz]

Hello,

I have to apology for entering this topic in a middle of a discussion, however my problem seems to be very similar. I want to operate the oscilloscope remotely (the model is WaveRuner 204 Xi) from the oscilloscope pc. Since non of my tries did not really succeed, I need to ask if it is even possible? I tried to follow the instruction in this thread, using the scope IP address ends up with some sort of error. The main problem is - the oscilloscope is not connected to the internet. The IP address that is written in TCP/IP settings of a network card differs from the one in Utilities of the scope (morover, the IP address the scope is "seeing" is 0.0.0.0).

The main question is - is it possible to operate the Oscilloscope from the "onboard" PC (it must be possible), so in the end the question is, how to configure the Scope to work with its own PC (using COM1 defined in the scope already does not work). Thank you in advance for your kind help.

Best regards,

Mariusz Zdanowicz.

[Aojha]

hello, I have read your suggestions and tried to do the same thing on Waverunner 610Zi. But i could not communicate with the instrument.

if TCPIP is given in visa resource name then WARNING : CURRENT REMOTE CONTROL INTERFACE IS TCPIP\n

in case of VICP error is the given session or object does not support this operation. What should I do??

[BriceS]

Could you please provide a screenshot of your code and of the error? I'm a little unclear based on your post what exactly is going wrong.

Regards,

Brice Sorrells

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

www.ni.com/support

[Aojha]

Actually I have not read attachment provided by you. It solved the problem.

Thank you very much.

[Tema]

I've been having a similar problem gettin "Error 85 occurred at Scan From String (arg 1)"

and when the wire was probed i got this   "WARNING : CURRENT REMOTE CONTROL INTERFACE IS TCPIP\n"

but I have followed the instructions in the attachment, so that

under tools >VISA>VISA Options I have the lecroy passport

I created a new system under remote, and its present under Aliases > VICP::192.168.0.2

It connects properly and gives back the right message when the connection is checked.

But it still didn't show up in the VISA list of the IV, so then i created a new TCP/IP device > TCPIP0::192.168.0.2::inst0::INSTR

this does show in the VISA but gives the error messages above.

Any ideas?

[LeonardBrown]

Spoiler

Hello Everyone,

VICP:  NI-VISA uses passports for different types of devices.  A passport basically tells NI-VISA how to communicate with a device.  LeCroy's (Now Teledyne LeCroy) VICP Passport telss NI-VISA to use port 1861 (registered with IANA:  http://www.iana.org/assignments/service-names-port-numbers/service-names-port-numbers.xml ) for the connection.  The LeCroy scope must be setup for remote control from "TCP/IP (VICP)" to use the passport with NI-VISA.

When configuring the resource for a VICP connection (That is what LeCroy calls it) you will use a VISA resource name that looks like:

VICP::<ip.address.of.scope>

An alias will not work here because the alias does not tell NI-VISA to use the passport so the connection is not made through the custom port which will result in an error message from the scope. (The alias and resource also do not show up on the VISA resource pulldown control in LabVIEW).

The alternative is to use the LXI (VXI-11) connection.  This is a TCPIP connection that does not use a custom port and does not need the VICP Passport.

It will accept an alias (in fact, this is the connection that is trying to be established if you use an alias with the VICP resource).

The VXI-11 interface is also done via LAN and it complies with the VXI-11 standard. (i.e. there is an html page on the scope that can be accessed via a web browser by typing in the IP address as the URL).

VXI-11 is a little slower than the VICP connection but it is still pretty fast when compared to other interface types. (GPIB, RS-232..) I have not done any benchmarking but so far, I do not see a significant difference in speed.

The resource for A VXI-11 connection takes the form of:   TCPIP0::<ip.address.of.scope>::inst0::INSTR  (or use an alias).

All of the commands and syntax are the same regardless of the connection type used.

LeCroy is working on a 64 bit version of the passport.  Until one is released, it is recommended that you use the VXI-11 interface with 64 bit versions of LabVIEW. (NOTE: some 32 bit OS scopes have to have the windows firewall turned off in order to communicate with the Visa Interactive Tool in MAX).

I hope this clears things up for everyone.

Feel free to contact LeCroy Technical Support for help.

Cheers,

Leonard Brown

Applications Engineer

Teledyne LeCroy

1-800-553-2769 (8am to 8pm Eastern) or (Extension 6088 8am to 5pm Pacific Time).