Communicate with the Latest Instruments Using LabVIEW Certified Plug and Play Drivers

National Instruments and third-party instrument vendors provide LabVIEW instrument drivers for a wide variety of instruments. These instrument drivers use either the Virtual Instrumentation Software Architecture (VISA) or the Interchangeable Virtual Instrument (IVI) protocol to control instruments such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and more.

National Instruments and third-party instrument vendors provide LabVIEW instrument drivers for a wide variety of instruments. These instrument drivers use either the Virtual Instrumentation Software Architecture (VISA) or the Interchangeable Virtual Instrument (IVI) protocol to control instruments such as oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, and more.

Controlling Instruments with LabVIEW

An instrument driver is a set of software routines that control a programmable instrument. Each routine corresponds to a programmatic operation such as configuring, reading from, writing to, and triggering the instrument. Instrument drivers simplify instrument control and reduce test program development time by eliminating the need to learn the programming protocol for each instrument.

NI LabVIEW is commonly used to control instruments in both data acquisition and signal generation applications. LabVIEW is an intuitive, open graphical programming environment that is highly interactive (Figure 1). The similarity between standard flow charts and LabVIEW graphical programming shortens the learning curve associated with traditional, text-based languages. LabVIEW delivers all of the flexible benefits of traditional development environments in addition to rapid development capabilities through graphical programming.

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Figure 1. LabVIEW graphical code is highly intuitive and easy to use to control instruments.

With LabVIEW, you can build custom software applications that control instruments using a PC and provide a graphical user interface through which operators can:

• Operate the instrumentation program
• Control selected hardware
• Analyze acquired data
• Display results

You can customize the graphical user interface with knobs, buttons, dials, and graphs to emulate control panels of traditional instruments (Figure 2).

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Figure 2. The LabVIEW graphical user interface, which is completely customizable, replaces
the buttons and knobs on an instrument.

New LabVIEW Instrument Drivers

New LabVIEW instrument drivers are constantly being introduced, and NI thoroughly tests certified drivers such as those found on ni.com against guidelines defined by the LabVIEW Instrument Driver Advisory Board to guarantee that they follow proper coding conventions and contain complete documentation. This helps ensure your success when using LabVIEW to develop instrument control applications.

The NI Instrument Driver Network, which contains more 5,000 instruments, helps you create and submit instrument drivers as well as request drivers for instruments that currently do not have drivers. Below is a sample of new instrument drivers from popular vendors that are available for free on the NI Instrument Driver Network at ni.com/idnet.

1. Agilent
   1. 34405A digital multimeters
   2. 5000 and 8000 series oscilloscopes
   3. P-Series power meters
   4. PSA Series spectrum analyzers
   5. 34980 data acquisition system
2. Anritsu
   1. MS2710 spectrum analyzers
   2. MG3690 signal generators
3. Keithley
   1. 2400 source meters
   2. 3400 pattern generators
4. LeCroy
   1. WaveJet oscilloscopes
   2. Serial data analyzers
5. Tektronix
   1. All Performance Series oscilloscopes
   2. TDS1000B and 2000B oscilloscopes
   3. RSA6100A Series spectrum analyzers

You can use LabVIEW instrument drivers to control instruments on a variety of buses, including serial, GPIB, Ethernet, USB, and IEEE 1394.

Need Another Instrument Driver?

National Instruments is committed to providing the support you need to connect to the latest test and measurement equipment. If there is an instrument for which you cannot find a driver on the NI Instrument Driver Network, you have several options:

• Request that the instrument vendor develop and submit a driver
• Submit a request on the NI Instrument Driver Network for NI engineers to develop the driver
• Use the Instrument Driver Wizard built into LabVIEW to develop a driver
• Develop a driver and submit it to the NI Instrument Driver Network

Summary

LabVIEW graphical programming is an ideal solution for controlling instruments using a computer. LabVIEW instrument drivers simplify instrument control and reduce test program development time by eliminating the need for you to learn the complex, low-level programming commands for each instrument. With drivers for more than 5,000 instruments from industry-standard vendors and with new drivers releasing continually, LabVIEW continues to meet the needs of engineers creating applications based on benchtop instrumentation.

Learn More about LabVIEW and Instrument Control

Learn more about using LabVIEW to control instrument  reading about Instrument Control Fundamentals.

View and download LabVIEW instrument drivers on the Instrument Driver Network.

Evaluate LabVIEW online, download LabVIEW evaluation software, or request a LabVIEW DVD trial version to use the latest features.

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