Appendix A
Common Questions
A-2
ni.com
Can I use NI-488.2 for Solaris with the SB-GPIB (non-TNT) board?
Yes. The board and software are compatible, but you will not be able to use
TNT4882C features such as HS488 (high-speed) mode.
Why can’t I use DVMA with my GPIB board?
Do not insert the GPIB board into a slave-only physical slot if you want
to use DVMA. Only programmed I/O transfers are possible in slave-only
slots. Refer to the documentation for your Sun SPARC system for
information about DVMA master and DVMA slave slots.
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 following
sections in the
NI-488.2M Software Reference Manual
: the
General
Programming Information
section in Chapter 3,
Understanding the
NI-488.2 Software
, and Appendix B,
Common Errors and Their Solutions
.
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
.
What is wrong if ibfind returns a –1?
The driver may not be installed correctly, or the nodes may not have been
created when the driver was loaded. Try removing and reinstalling
NI-488.2 from the CD, as described in Chapter 2,
Also, the file may require read/write privileges you do not have, or you may
have renamed a device. Make sure that the device names in your application
program match the device names in
ibconf
.
How do I use an NI-488.2 language interface?
For information about using NI-488.2 language interfaces, refer Chapter 4,
. Also refer to the
NI-488.2M Software
Reference Manual
.
