Appendix B
Troubleshooting and Common Questions
©
National Instruments Corporation
B-5
When should I use ibic?
You can use
ibic
to practice communication with your instrument,
troubleshoot problems, and develop your application program. For more
information about
ibic
, refer to Chapter 6,
ibic
, in the
NI-488.2M
Software Reference Manual
.
How do I use an NI-488.2 language interface?
For information about using NI-488.2 language interfaces, refer to the
NI-488.2M Software Reference Manual
.
My I/O worked with a board interface, but it times out when I use the
GPIB-ENET/100 interface. What should I do?
Network communication is slower than straight cable communication.
You might need to raise the timeout value using
ibconf
. Refer to
Chapter 4,
, for more information.
How do I communicate with my instrument over the GPIB?
Refer to the documentation that came from the instrument manufacturer.
The command sequences you use are totally dependent on the specific
instrument. The documentation for each instrument should include the
GPIB commands you need to communicate with it. In most cases, NI-488
device-level calls are sufficient for communicating with instruments. Refer
to Chapter 5,
NI-488M Software Characteristics and Functions
, in the
NI-488.2M Software Reference Manual
, for more information.
How should I check for errors in my GPIB application?
Examine the value of
ibsta
after each NI-488 or NI-488.2 call. If a call
fails, the ERR bit of
ibsta
is set and an error code is stored in
iberr
.
For more information about global status variables, refer to the
General
Programming Information
section in Chapter 3,
Understanding the
NI-488.2 Software
, and Appendix B,
Common Errors and Their Solutions
,
in the
NI-488.2M Software Reference Manual
.