Not really and it is probably not needed. Consider an instrument and its logical name in VEE as a resource with default settings (properties) defined at design-time in the Instrument Manager. During run-time it is possible to get and/or set resource properties like VISA address string, timeout etc. using programmable properties in Formula objects (there is no need to use the old-style control pins anymore). Bring up a Formula and type in your instruments logical name and a . (like 'MyInstrument.') and code completion will list all available properties.You can also find them in the Function&Object Browser.
That's fine if you develop a complete ATE system whose configuration never changes. But imagine the scenario where a number of COM ports are available to a user and you don't know which port will have a particular instrument connected to it until run time. With Labview you have a drop-down list showing discovered equipment; the operator can choose which instrument to assign to a particular function or transaction family. Handy when equipment has to swapped during calibration exercises etc. You don't need to worry about getting a programmer to come and ensure that it is correctly discovered by "connection expert" and has the correct alias before the user can run the program.
It's pretty easy in a VEE program to scan all GPIB and COM ports and then programmatically assign the correct address/port number to each instrument.
I generally I don't bother with that, but I do scan for instrument make and model at runtime and then load the appropriate drivers. That way it doesn't matter what equipment is in the ATE setup, the program will still work.
It's very easy, Kevin. Use one VEE instrument in Instrument Manager for all your instrument I/O and control it's address programmatically. There's no need for each instrument in your ATE setup to have its own VEE instrument. The exception of course is if you have a peice of test equipment with non-standard I/O requirements. That would need its own instrument in Instrument Manager. I've been using this technique for years and it works quite well.
I see. Thanks for that - it's a reasonable work-around. What would be really useful is if you could add a control pin to the multi-instrument i/o box to programmatically select the instrument instead of just having a pull-down...
Consider an instrument and its logical name in VEE as a resource with default settings (properties) defined at design-time in the Instrument Manager.
During run-time it is possible to get and/or set resource properties like VISA address string, timeout etc. using programmable properties in Formula objects (there is no need to use the old-style control pins anymore).
Bring up a Formula and type in your instruments logical name and a . (like 'MyInstrument.') and code completion will list all available properties.You can also find them in the Function&Object Browser.